Japan Crate's Premium Box
As most of you can probably already tell, it is August.
I got this box in June.
June 6th, to be exact, & yes. I finished all of it within a couple weeks of
Why am I reviewing this, you ask? I just started this blog to use up some free time until I have to go back to school (which is in a couple weeks). Since I'm reviewing this late and I ate it all (because I am a hungry Asian girl), I have no pictures of the individual products except the one listed above.
Japan Crate's subscription boxes come in three sizes: mini, original, & premium. Original box includes the mini contents, Premium box contains everything in the mini and original box's contents. Everything came to me in a red box with the snacks on top of some red tissue paper. It also came with a little Totoro toy! I really regret not taking pictures of this. :c sigh. Next review of my next snack subscription is going to be picture-heavy... if I ever get enough money to get another snack subscription box. This one was actually gifted to me as a birthday present by my friend Henry (thank you Henry!).
Mini: Ramune Marble Gum, White Chocolate Big Bar Z, Little Gang Grape, Red Potion/Black Potion, Soy Sauce Mochi/Snow Pea Chips
Original: Choco Kinako Mochi DIY, Kirby Blend-Blend Mix Gum, Matcha Green Tea Pejoy, Talking Puppy Chocolate
Premium: Kawaii Ramune, Magic bubble Jelly DIY, Happy Paws Gummy, Choco Banana Pocky, Matcha Green Tea Kit Kats
Mini Contents Reviews:
Ramune Marble Gum: candy-coated ramune flavored gum. Coating was not as hard as a regular gumball, but it was nice. A lot easier to bite and chew on. Texture was really melty soft. Tasted pretty spot on to original flavored ramune (basically a lemon/lime flavored carbonated drink with far less ingredients than regular soda, also kind of has a Hubba Bubba bubble gum flavor) 3/5
White Chocolate Big Bar Z: What an interesting name. It's a big wafer (think middle of a kit kat) soaked (I mean SOAKED, not covered. SOAKED, as in there was no air in this wafer, the spaces where air is supposed to be is filled with white chocolate). The wafer had the texture of styrofoam, not in a bad way though. It was crispy and light, but also really sweet. A little too sweet for my tastes, but it was pretty good too... 3.5/5
Little Gang Grape: This was pop rocks gum. Basically, pop rocks that turn into gum after a while. This is probably fun for little kids. I on the other hand, thought this was a bit hard to chew and all the little bits kept getting stuck in my teeth. Really strong Japanese artificial-grape flavor. American grape-flavor tastes like medicine, but Japanese grape is always really good... It tastes more like real grapes. :x 2.5/5
Red Potion/Black Potion: Came in a packet with two sticks in a plastic container. One red stick and one black stick. The red one would of course, turn your tongue red while the black one would turn your tongue black. Cola flavored this time. Flavor was pretty strong, lasted about 15 mins for me. It was pretty... juicy? Loads of flavor in this one. Texture similar to Hubba Bubba gum. 3/5
Soy Sauce Mochi/Snow Pea chips: I received the Snow Pea chips and this was my favorite out of the box... I like savory snack/chip type snacks. The brand is from Calbee, and they actually make a version in America too with less MSG I'm guessing. They're actually rice and snow peas grinded up together and molded into the shape of a snow pea. I couldn't resist eating the whole bag. The Japanese one tasted better for some reason... probably due to the MSG. 5/5
Original Contents Review:
Choco Kinako Mochi DIY: This was.... not a good idea. Doing this DIY was not a good idea. I followed the instructions on the back by pictures alone as I can't read Japanese. I thought you were supposed to mix the white mochi-discs and somehow they'd turn into a cream. I was wrong. Horribly wrong. I was wondering why it wouldn't turn into a creamy mixture, and thought I had to add more water. Even more wrong. Well, I realized I was supposed to only soften the disc, dip it into the brown graham-cracker like mixture, and then dip it into the chocolate. It was.. okay... Not something I'd eat again. 1.5/5
Kirby Blend-Blend Gum: Why does it have blend twice? because each individual color of gum has its own flavor, and you're supposed to mix them to create special flavors. Blend flavors to create a unique special flavor. Flavors weren't really anything special. For example, I mixed apple and ramune flavor together, and the taste was like... apple. And Ramune. Put together. Not really an APPLE RAMUNE flavor, but separate individual flavors that have been mixed. Like I stuck a bunch of pieces of pineapple inside my ramune and drank it like boba/bubble tea where the pineapple would act as the boba balls. 3.5/5
Matcha Green Tea Pejoy: Pocky's cousin, Pejoy. Basically an inside out Pocky. Green tea flavored. Nom. The green tea note was pretty mellow, not too strong, not too light. Chocolate was dense, a bit gritty like Hershey's. Toppo is a similar brand of inside-out Pocky. Toppo's chocolate is denser, and its biscuit is more pretzel-like, whereas Pejoy's is more biscuity. 4/5
Talking Puppy Chocolate: A less sweet version of Nestle's Crunch bar. Chocolate with puffed rice inside. Texture was a bit creamier than a Crunch bar. 3.5/5
Premium Contents Review:
Kawaii Ramune: Sangaria brand. Tasted like what it was. Ramune (lemon-line & hint of bubblegum soda). A little sweeter than most I've had.
Magic Bubble Jelly DIY: bad bad idea. Very very bad idea doing this DIY. Was incredibly messy for me, stirring it and all... The candy was basically... a grape flavored... gelatinous foam... That is the best way I can describe it. Not the tastiest. 0.2/5
Happy Paws Gummy: Pink paw shaped peach flavored gummies. Really juicy & juicy gummies. Sweet with some tartness to balance it. Flavor was really nice. I prefer my gummies a little more dense and firm though. My sister liked these a lot. 4/5
Chocolate Banana Pocky: Chocolate biscuit covered in very artificial banana cream coating. I liked it, despite it tasting super artificial. Chocolate flavor was almost nonexistant. Just artificial banana tasting. This is the thing with me. I don't care if it tastes artificial, as long as it tastes good. Like fusion food, a lot of people won't eat "inauthentic" Chinese food because it's inauthentic. I however, don't care if it's inauthentic or not because Americanized Chinese food tastes good, so I'm going to keep eating it. 4/5
Green Tea Kit Kat: Gritty green tea chocolate cream covered wafers; similar Pejoy's green tea chocolate. Green tea chocolate is sweeter in this one though. Chocolate coating on this is a bit more gritty/powdery though. Really good. Japanese Kit Kats are my favorites.
Overall
Some of these items are very familiar, considering I grew up in an Asian household and grew up around Asian supermarkets all my life. I think snacks in Japan are known for their novelty and making eating fun. Japan Crate is a nice starter for someone interested in Japanese culture and want to try a variety of different Japanese snacks including some staples and some new items. It's also curated with weather in mind, so during the warmer months, they tend to give things that melt less such as chocolate. So thoughtful! While this is the only Japanese snack subscription I've tried, I'm looking to try more later on. It really just brighten up my day to see some snacks with adorable packaging in the house (sucker for cute packaging). I recommend this not only to those interested in Japanese culture, but to anyone that just wants to try something new and don't feel like getting out of the house. This is a good suggestion. Be adventurous without venturing outside your house because you're lazy like me and scared of the outside world.
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