Because A Mortal Song is set in Japan, in the month leading up to the book’s release I wanted to celebrate some of the amazing media out there by Japanese creators. I’ll be highlighting my favorite books, TV shows, and films (as well as some snack box services—you need something to munch on while you’re doing all that watching and reading!). You can find a full list of my faves and other resources here on my website.
Snack Subscription Box Review – Okashi Connection
What you get: Okashi Connection offers three different box sizes, from $14 (5-7 items) for the cheapest to $33 (14-18 items) for the largest. Shipping is included. Each box includes only snack items (no toys or other special items). Their focus is offering a variety of snacks found only in Japan. The company is based on Japan and that’s where the boxes ship from.
Review of the box:
My Sumo box arrived in the very attractive packaging you can see above, which immediately made me excited to see what was inside.
It was fully packed with tons of goodies and a handy guide that gave a brief description of what each snack was, in vivid color. And what a lot of snacks there were! Here’s the full spread:
I jotted down my thoughts on each of the snacks as I tried them out and gave them a rating out of 3 (0 = nope, 1 = all right, 2 = quite good, 3 = OMG where can I get more of this?).
Kinoko No Yama Big Size – I don’t know what the small size is like to compare, but these mushroom shaped biscuits had nicely smooth and rich milk chocolate, with the cookie stem adding a great bit of crunch and texture. 2.
Lemon Pocky – I love Pocky and I love sweet lemon flavoring, so you can imagine how these went over. 😉 The icing had a lovely, creamy, tangy flavor and there was lots of it (if I had any complaint, it’d be that I like a tad more cookie in the cookie-to-coating ratio). 3.
Shuwabo Grape – A long, chewy candy with a satisfying texture, but I’m not a big fan of grape flavoring, so didn’t love this. 1.
Shuwabo Change Cola – Similar to the Grape, but with a supposedly cola flavor and a sour streak down the middle. Sour isn’t my thing, and this was very sour, but that effect faded quickly into the sweetness of the rest of the candy, and otherwise the taste was quite enjoyable. It tasted more like orange and lemon to me than cola, but what do I know? 2.
Pikachu Gum – Mix and match gumballs in four different flavors (as well as another “flavor” for cleansing the palate before trying a new one) along with “recipes” for combining them. I found the flavors didn’t last very long, but I enjoyed most of them. The red had a nicely realistic apple flavor rather than the standard artificial type; the orange tasted like orange; the yellow was vaguely creamy and tangy, more vanilla to me than the yogurt it was labeled as, and the blue was a strong cola flavor. I only tried one of the gray ones and it was kind of horrifying, so I skipped that step afterward. 2.
Juu-C Colorful Ramune – These little discs were satisfyingly crunchy and only a little powdery. They had a fruit-gum-like taste, a bit tart but mostly sweet, and a fizzy impression like soda. Would eat again! 2.
Pine-Ame Gummies – The texture on these gummy rings was softer than I prefer in gummy candies and the pineapple taste was pretty thin, only faintly tangy, mostly just sweet. So overall kind of bland. This was the only snack in the bunch I didn’t finish. 0.
Pachi Pachi Panic – The texture of this pop-rock-like candy was a little off-putting to me (the bits stuck to my teeth as I chewed) and the crackling sensation was unsettling, but the strawberry and cream flavoring was so enjoyable I kept eating anyway. 2.
DIY molded gummies kit – I found it hard to follow the instructions on the package, so I messed it up a bit, but I was still impressed by the smooth, not too hard or too soft texture of the gummies I created. The flavor was sweet but not too sugary, very tasty. 2.
Peroty Hello Kitty Choco Pops – The milk chocolate was enjoyable creamy, but I didn’t really taste the strawberry in the strawberry one. The banana one had a light artificial banana flavor that worked well with the chocolate. 2.
Puchi Busse Tasty Vanilla Cakes – The soft pastry in these layered “cakes” was a little artificial in texture, as with most prepackaged treats like this, but it had a great mix of sweet flavors. 2.
Pop Zack – These crunchy biscuits had a bit of a chocolate flavor along with a very buttery butterscotch flavor that I wasn’t expecting but loved. 3.
Pototto Plus – With this interesting approach to potato chips, the oil is packaged separately and you shake it into the package right before eating. It definitely gave the chips a fresher, less processed taste. However, all I could taste was the olive oil and salt, none of the supposed herbs, and I like a more prominent flavor in my chips. 1.
Saku-Saku Panda – These cookies had a good balance of chocolate with biscuit, plus they were very cute! The chocolate was nicely creamy. 2.
Alfort Mini Chocolate Blonde Milk – Another nice balance of cookie and topping. The “blonde” chocolate wasn’t my favorite (I’m more of a dark gal) but I did enjoy how creamy and sweet it was. 2.
Overall thoughts: Lots of different snacks, most of which I wasn’t familiar with, and almost all of them I enjoyed. I do wish there’d been a little more of the salty snacks to balance out the sweet ones.
Overall rating: 28/45, 62%
Note: I received this box free in exchange for my honest review.
Join me next week for more recs! You can read more about A Mortal Song in the meantime:
