Bokksu is a premium Japanese snack subscription service. Each box includes an assortment of authentic Japanese snacks as well as a tea pairing chosen to complement and enhance that month’s theme and flavors.
This box was sent to us at no cost for review purposes. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes!)
About Bokksu
The Subscription Box: Bokksu
The Cost: Classic Bokksu is $39.00 per month + free shipping, Tasting Bokksu is $25.00 per month + free shipping (save with longer commitments!)
Coupons:
- Use code ADDICTION to save $5 off your first box!
- Use code UME when ordering your first long-term Classic Bokksu subscription to receive a free box of Ume Sake Kit Kats!
- Use code BOGO when ordering a new Classic Bokksu subscription to receive a FREE Tasting box with your shipment!
The Products: Classic Bokksu includes 20-25 Japanese snacks & tea pairing, Tasting Bokksu includes 10-14 snacks & tea pairing—snacks are curated around a monthly theme.
Ships to: Worldwide for free!
Bokksu November 2018 "Tea Story" Review
Bokksu always starts out with a quick letter of introduction from their founder, Danny Guo:
This month’s theme, Tea Story, resonates with the Japanese love for tea and the countless varieties of blends and flavors. The Classic Box includes an exclusive Hojicha Latte Mochi as a special thank you to subscribers!
The included info booklet is very informative and includes a map referencing the snacks’ origins, plus a lot more information.
Each snack is described in detail and Bokksu always clearly lists allergens—very helpful!
There are 11 different treats this month, so let’s dig in!
Alfort Milk Tea Chocolate - Retail Value $2.00
When you first open the lovely, thin packaging, a lovely milk tea (black tea, sugar, milk) scent will waft everywhere. The soft, buttery biscuit is embedded in a black tea infused white chocolate rectangle and will slowly melt with the chocolate.
Yamematcha Mini Dorayaki - Buy a pack of 30 for $30.00 (found here for $20.00)
I’m familiar with dorayaki, which is a common Japanese snack with two castella pancake patties with sweet red bean paste. This doryaki is made of matcha cream infused sweet white bean paste. The matcha used is known for its superior quality in Yame in Fukuoka Prefecture for its small batch productions. The castella pancakes are sweet, fluffy, and almost juicy. The matcha filling paste complements the castella honey-like flavors very well and is not too sweet.
Milk Tea Cake - Buy a pack of 6 for $7.50 (Found here for $5.00)
This cake also gives a natural fragrance of black tea—I loved the floral aroma of the moist, fluffy cake. The cream is flavored with black tea and milk, while the cakes have black tea leaves kneaded into the dough. The taste of the cakes, however, were too bland in contrast to the powerful, floral scent and were a miss for me
Matcha Milk Beans - Retail Value $3.00
These beans gave a very strong, bitter matcha taste that is quite earthy (which I am totally for). They were the perfect pair with the tea pairing, genmaicha.
A common Korean snack I’ve experienced is a cracker enveloping a seaweed wrapped, crunchy cracker wrapped peanut. These exclusive Bokksu matcha beans are similar. A peanut is wrapped in seaweed, encased in a crunchy, waffle-cone cracker, then covered in matcha milk chocolate.
Matcha Chocolate Coated Pecans - Retail Value $3.00
These pecans are coated with matcha chocolate but are significantly lighter and sweeter than the beans. The strong pecan flavor is wonderfully paired with the sweeter matcha chocolate—there’s that wonderful crunch of the pecan after the soft chocolate coating. It’s a pity there were only a couple of them in the bag!
Iced Coffee Chocolate Sandwich - Buy 10 bags for $20.00
Changing gears from tea to coffee! I’m an avid tea drinker, but I enjoy the occasional slight coffee flavors in ice cream or other sweets. The waffle-shaped chocolate cookie is a very nice and deep dark chocolate flavor and complements the iced coffee cream. The touch of salt of the cookies gives a nice balance of sweetness and saltiness. It smelled and tasted exactly like coffee flavored ice cream—YUM!
Foliage Rice Crackers - Retail Value $3.00
The visuals and unique tastes of these rice crackers are AMAZING. There are eight assorted flavors; from top left to bottom right of the picture, they are sugar-coated, black sesame and mayonnaise, turmeric, green seaweed (nori), purple sweet potato (satsumaimo), mustard, matcha sugar-coated, and soy sauce and white sesame. My favorite was the black sesame and mayonnaise, which was salty, sour, and had the iconic sesame flavor common in Asian cuisine. The most surprising flavor was the sugar-coated ones—they were an intriguing flavor!
Hokkaido Cheese Mochi - Buy 6 packs for $12.00
I first thought these cheese mochi would be those similar to the Hojicha Mochi (mentioned below), with a soft rice-cake exterior and a creamy cheese interior. I was pleasantly surprised to see these were like rice puffs covered in an extra (almost crunchy!) layer of cheese powder. The cheese is from Hokkaido, which is recognized as the main dairy region of Japan. The rice-puff interior almost melted in my mouth with the powder, it was so light.
Olive Oil Spicy Pepper Senbei - Buy 15 pieces for $5.00
Ooh! The kick of black pepper in these rice cookies complemented the traditional soy sauce senbei flavor very well. The crunch of these senbei were very inviting and gave a fast snack I devoured.
Hojicha Latte Mochi Chocolate - Retail Value $6.00
Ah, the special surprise gift! Hojicha is a variation of roasted green tea; it’s associated with warm, nutty flavors surrounding the earthy notes of green tea. These flavors are perfect with a slight touch of milk blend. The rice cake portion of the mochi was so, so soft. If these mochi didn’t have the filling, I would be fine with just the rice cake! Combined with chocolate, the mochi interior of a hojicha latte reminded me of a strong coffee latte!
Genmaicha Tea - Retail Value $1.00
A common tea I am familiar from through my Korean background is boricha, or tea with roasted barley. Genmaicha is unique in its pairing of roasted brown rice, like boricha’s toasted and slightly bitter flavors, and sencha leaves. I usually turn to this tea blend towards the winter months. There’s something so comforting of the toasted and light green tea flavors!
Verdict: As a fan of strong, dark matcha flavors, I thoroughly enjoyed this month’s snack curation surrounding the ‘tea story’ theme. The curation would be a great introduction to new matcha fans—starting from a light matcha from the tea, to the mild matcha chocolate pecans, and finally enjoying the bitter crunch of matcha beans. Bokksu's elegant and beautiful packaging is much appreciated, as well as the lovely booklet of information. I absolutely loved the milk tea chocolates, which were so new and yummy.
To Wrap Up:
Can you still get this box if you sign up today? You must order by the 25th of the month to receive the following month’s box. Order today to receive the December curation. Check out theme spoilers here!
DECEMBER SPOILER:
December’s Box will be a theme of Snow Festival with a limited edition white and gold Bokksu box. The curation will include snacks as light as snow like Milk Mochi and Snow Mimosa with ingredients from northern prefectures such as Hokkaido. Bokksu will bring the snow festival to you!
Coupons:
- Use code ADDICTION to save $5 off your first box!
- Use code UME when ordering your first long-term Classic Bokksu subscription to receive a free box of Ume Sake Kit Kats!
- Use code BOGO when ordering a new Classic Bokksu subscription to receive a FREE Tasting box with your shipment!
Value Breakdown: This box costs $39.00; with 20 items, you’re paying approximately $1.95 for each item included.
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