Japan Candy Box is filled with hand-picked unique Japanese sweets and snacks related to a monthly theme. Each box includes 10 delicious and fun Japanese candies and snacks.
FYI - This snack came in an extra box with itself since the original purple one was too small. Thank you for the extra effort, Japan Candy Box team!
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 Japan Candy Box
The Subscription Box: Japan Candy Box
The Cost: $19.90 a month + free shipping
The Products: 10 curated snacks around a monthly theme; includes DIY kits, dagashi, limited edition flavors, and traditional snacks
Ships to: Worldwide for free!
Japan Candy Box "Japanese Christmas" Review
Let’s start with the word of the month- クリスマス which means Christmas. It’s pronounced “kurisumasu—” add a メリー or “merii” for the Merry! (The ー means to extend the “ii” sound)
The word fits our cute reindeer mascot and sassy snowman!
The box comes with an illustrated info sheet that classifies snacks as traditional, dagashi, kawaii, limited-edition, or seasonal and gives a short blurb of about them.
This month, we have a nice holiday card from Japan Candy Box’s team. <3
Tohato Christmas Caramel Corn – Caramel & Roasted Peanut Flavor – Retail Value $4.50 (found here for $3.00)
Look at the cute (limited-edition) Christmas packaging on this snack! Gets us right into the holiday spirit~ Caramel corn is a popular puffed corn snack known for the strong caramel peanut taste and curled shape. I was surprised to see actual roasted peanuts at the bottom of the bag, covered in the same caramel syrup! The puffs have a very sweet caramel flavor but are balanced out with the roasted peanut scent and flavor. The snack is even better with a cup of tea or a bitter drink, rather than a sweet soda or even water.
Kanro Candemina Assembly Sour Candies Fruit Mix – Retail Value $3.90 (found here for $2.73)
These "sour" gummies have three different fruit flavors: peach, apple, and pineapple. You fit two different colors together to create a 'new' flavor: peach + apple become cherry, pineapple + apple become kiwi, and peach + pineapple become mango.
The only distinct flavor among the individual pieces was the pineapple and the peach. I think the green flavors got a bit overpowered by the scent. I did find eating pineapple and peach together gave a nice mango taste; in fact, when opening the (resealable!) bag, it smelled very tropical! I liked the chewiness of the gummies and the concept. If only the gummies were fruitier!
Black Thunder Christmas Chocolate Minibar – Buy a bag of 15 pieces for $10.50
Black Thunder (Burakku Sanda) is a chocolate candy bar iconic in Japan made by the Yuraku Confectionary Company. It contains pieces of Japanese rice puffs and dark chocolate flavored cookie bits, all draped in a thin layer of milk chocolate. It tastes SO good. It's crunchy, but the thin chocolate melts and creates that double texture. And the cookie part? Actually tastes like real chocolate. It's not sweet, you can taste the balance of the bitter dark chocolate cookie with the semisweet milk chocolate, evened out with rice puffs.
Bourbon Petit Cinnamon Cookies – Retail Value $3.20 (found here for $2.24)
Ooh, another one of the petit series from Bourbon! These come in a long plastic tray of tiny bundles of yummy cookies and chips. This time, they are tiny cinnamon biscuits, a classic Christmas flavor (imagine if they were gingerbread!!). They taste like a cinnamony-speculoos and are great with a cup of rooibos tea.
Bourbon Disney Tsum Tsum Xmas Milk & White Chocolate Biscuits – Buy a bag of 46 pieces for $11.90
These two cookies were so cute! They're like tiny speculoos cookies with a thin layer of white and white chocolate. Nothing bad here!
Chirin Fortune Telling Ramune Candies – Retail Value $1.10
Ooh, dagashi! These candies pop out of their socket to reveal a symbol (triangle, circle, etc.) on the foil popped packaging. They're supposed to tell you your fortune! The candies themselves are cute, and it's a cute idea, but it had a basic (surprisingly bland and powdery?) ramune soda flavor I wasn't too excited about.
Yaokin Xmas Fugashi Brown Sugar Snack – Buy a bag of 5 pieces for $2.50 (found here for $1.75)
This little snack also comes in a cute Christmas themed package. Fugashi is a traditional Japanese candy. It is a long strip of wheat flour-based dough baked or fried to a flaky texture and coated in (a lot) of brown sugar. Though there wasn't much of a taste, I did enjoy the texture of the snack. The outside is a crispy snap because of the hardened sugar coating, but the inside is very fluffy and light. The fluffs melt in your mouth in a buttery mixture and are almost as soft as cotton candy.
Glico Caplico Atama White Chocolate Stars – Retail Value $2.90
These adorable chocolate stars took me a moment to figure out how out, but like the dagashi, you pop them out! They're a blend of moussey and solid chocolate, almost like an ice cream texture, with two layers of white and milk chocolate. These were fun to pop out and enjoy throughout the day!
Yaokin Umaibo Xmas Chocolate Flavor – Buy a bag of 5 pieces for $2.50
This might be my favorite umaibo flavor (light puffed corn snack) yet! The milk chocolate coating wasn’t too thick or sweet and paired surprisingly well with the light puffed corn. If only there were more!
Ginbis Shimi Christmas Choco Corn Snacks – Retail Value $3.80
We had the chestnut version of these corn star snacks in November’s Tokyo Treat! These are puffed corn snacks, in the shape of stars, and coated in a thick layer of flavored white chocolate powder. I really enjoyed this snack. The texture is so fun-- it's airy at first but the outside layer melts in your mouth to give a burst of white chocolate creaminess. (That metallic blue packaging is everything!!)
The Verdict: I loved this month’s adorable limited-edition Christmas themed packaging! The snacks had a nice mix of chocolate, caramel, cinnamon, and fruit flavors. I especially enjoyed the caramel corn and included roasted peanuts. The gummies were fun to mix together and guess the flavor!
To Wrap Up:
Can you get this box if you sign up today? You must order by the last day of the month to receive the following month’s box. Subscribe today to receive the February curation. Check out theme spoilers here!=
Value Breakdown: This box costs $19.90 + free shipping, which means that each of the 10 items in the box has an average cost of $1.99.
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What do you think of Japan Candy Box’s Christmas snacks? Did you get in the holiday festive spirit?
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