Treats Subscription Box Review – September 2015

Note from Liz: I'm so excited to introduce our newest MSA reviewer: Bekki! Look for many more reviews from her coming soon! 🙂

Treats is a monthly subscription box for international snacks.  Every month they send an assortment of snacks from different countries to give you an authentic snacking experience from the chosen country for that month.

The Subscription Box: Treats

The Cost: $12.95 for the Standard Pack and $24.95 for the Premium Pack

ACTIVE DEAL: Save 15% off your first box
CODE: TAKE15

The Products: 4-5 snacks in the Standard Pack and 8-10 snacks in the Premium Pack

Ships to: US (free shipping to the US) and Worldwide (Shipping fees apply.  Shipping to Canada is $5.56, shipping to Mexico is $9.47, and shipping to all other countries is $15.80)

The box arrived to my house in a box wrapped with kraft paper.  It was like opening a present, so I’m already fond of the packaging (I happen to LOVE presents!).  The outer box was a heavy weight, white box.  It wouldn’t be easy to crush this one during shipping!  Inside, the snacks were wrapped with tissue paper with a sticker holding it closed and a cute note card on top!  There was chocolate inside this box, and it didn’t melt, which I was impressed with.  Here in So. Cal it’s been over 100 degrees multiple days in a row and shipping chocolate doesn’t usually go well!

This month was snacks from Korea (as far as I can tell).  There was no informational card explaining the snacks for the month but their website is very informative and easy to navigate.  I was able to find all of the snacks in my box and a little information about each snack.  The information on their site includes full ingredient lists, which is wonderful for allergy information!

Orion Cuttlefish Peanut Balls (Spicy) – $4.99

I must admit that when I saw the ingredients list for this snack I was a little iffy about trying it because I don’t eat a lot of meat/seafood.  I wanted to be a good sport and try it out though so I gave it a shot!  This snack is really interesting; the outside is crunchy and airy with a peanut inside the shell.  It’s like finding a surprise inside!  They weren’t extremely spicy to me, but there was a hint of heat.  I’m not sure I would buy this to eat for myself, but I can see some people really enjoying it!  It did have a bit of a seafood flavor and it was an interesting combination with the peanuts.  I gave the remainder of these to someone I knew would love them.

Cosmos Hot Chicken Balls - $4.98?

I can’t find this exact item online so I linked to a similar sized product by the same company.  These were curious to me because I can't find chicken in their ingredients list!  Maybe it's contained in one of the other ingredients listed?  I'm not sure.  Anyway, I gave these a try.  They were sweet and spicy at the same time, and I could see myself eating these regularly; I did not taste chicken at all.

Haitai Sweet Plum Candy - $2.99 plus $3.49 shipping

These are delicious.  When I eat candy I generally reach for chocolate first, but I can absolutely see myself eating these regularly.

White Cookie Pepero by Lotte - $1.79

These were delicious.  The best way I can think to describe them is cookies and cream flavored Pocky.  Random bit of trivia for you:  apparently Pepero cookies have an unofficial national holiday devoted to them on November 11th.  "The original stated purpose of Pepero day was to celebrate and promote the idea that eating Peperoes will make one taller and thinner."  Now, I don't know about you, but I am ALL for eating junk food that will make one taller and thinner.  (Don't we all wish this could actually be possible?)

Kancho Choco Biscuit by Lotte - $1.49

These were also delicious.  They have a crunchy exterior and a creamy chocolate filling!  I could have eaten the entire package alone but I made myself share.

Binch Biscuits by Lotte - $1.97?

I linked to the only place I could find these online, but the price seems really low.  I would actually estimate these to cost more.  I found them here for sale individually but the total with that price would be $18.00 which also doesn't seem right.  I think these are more likely worth $4.00 or $5.00.  Pricing information out of the way, I LOVED these.  Each cookie was individually wrapped, so you don't have to worry about an open box of cookies going stale.  These are safely stored in my desk drawer at work for any moment when I NEED a cookie.  (These were incredibly hard to get a decent picture of.  There's gold foiling on the letters, and the reflective surface made my DSLR go nuts.  Same with the Choco-Pies in the next picture!)

Choco Boy by Orion - $3.50

I found these for sale on Amazon, in a package that is twice the size as the box I received.  I went ahead and just divided the number in half to get the price above.  These were good.  I can see how they would be fun for kids for the kitsch value!  They're tiny little mushrooms.  The cap is chocolate and the stem is a crunchy cookie.  They're good, but I think they're cuter than they tasted (if that makes any sense!).

Choco-Pies by Orion - $3.66

I received four of these Choco-Pies.  They were delicious!  Quite similar to a Moon Pie here in the states, actually!

Verdict:  The total of this box comes out to about $25.37 using the lower pricing for the Binch Biscuits, and not counting the shipping for the Haitai Plum Candy.  If I use my estimate on the Binch Biscuits, it comes out to about $28.40.  Either way, it exceeds the cost of the box, which is great for a snack box!  The assortment was great for me, as I enjoy sweet snacks.  If you're more of a savory snacker, this month might have been more of a miss, because only two of the snacks were savory.  This is probably going to change month to month.  I really enjoyed this box.  I think it's a great value and as someone who is not familiar with Korean food much, it seemed like a glimpse into their 'snack culture,' which was fun!

What did you think of this month's Treats?