Bokksu is a themed premium monthly box of tasty gourmet snacks and teas straight from Japan. Each box has a different theme, and contains a carefully curated selection of tasty artisan foods.
The March Theme is Glamorous Tokyo!
Bokksu has partnered with the Tokyo outpost of the popular New York dessert bar ChikaLicious Amarige. This box even includes an exclusive item from their shop!
The menu is beautifully laid out, and usefully includes allergen info.
Beans & Roasters Cafe Latte Stick. Bokksu usually includes teabags, but this month we have coffee instead! These little sticks are instant latte packets, and you add boiling water to make your coffee. You can also add ice if you prefer your coffee cold.
Maple Mania Maple Butter Cookie. This gorgeous retro packaging is almost as lovely as the cookie! Two thin maple sugar cookies are sandwiched with a creamy butter and white chocolate filling.
Tokyo Chocolate Tea. The pretty striped packet contains a tea-infused biscuit coated in a thin layer of milk chocolate.
Fun fact: the tea for these biscuits is grown in Totoro Forest. Also known as Sayama Hills, this forest was the inspiration for the magical setting for the classic movie My Neighbor Totoro.
Tokyo Rusk Premium Almond Rusk. Rusk is a popular snack in Japan. It’s made from twice-baked buttered and sugared bread, which sounds rather odd but is actually delicious. This version has added flaked almonds and is extremely good. The November box contained the Earl Grey Orange variety, but I think this almond one is even better!
Mini Fried Rice Crackers (Amanoya Himemaru Arare). Three small packages of tiny rice crackers coated with sweet soy sauce. The flavour combination makes these extremely moreish, so it’s just as well they are in individual packages!
Horn Milk Chocolate. These are a thin buttery cookie folded around a stick of creamy Meiji milk chocolate. The chocolate to cookie ratio is satisfyingly high!
Black Sesame Goma Senbei. Senbei are traditional crispy rice crackers, often soy sauce, and this tasty version includes black sesame seeds for a delicious toasted flavour.
Calbee Potato Vegetable Sticks. These crunchy potato snacks are made with seven different vegetables, pictured on the package. They are crunchy and salty and it’s very difficult to eat only a few!
Koala’s March Strawberry. Koala’s March are very popular snacks in Japan. They are tiny hollow biscuits filled with sweet cream filling in various flavours. This strawberry version is particularly delicious. Each biscuit also has a cute koala picture on it, for extra kawaii (cute) goodness!
Finally, the snack from ChikaLicious, Bokksu’s partner this month: ChikaLicious Cobbler in Apple Caramelized and Chocolate & Banana Flavour. These snacks are quite difficult to describe. The closest thing I can think of is a combination of cookie bar, crumble bar, and brownie. They are soft and chewy, and the flavours are sweet and very distinct.
After February’s triumphant KitKat extravaganza, Bokksu have returned to the usual variety of savory and sweet snacks.
I found it a little tricky finding any English Google reference to the Tokyo ChikaLicious, but if it’s anything like the one in New York it’ll be absolutely spectacular! It’s a great idea to partner with another company, and the Cobbler bar is only available in Tokyo. The exclusivity of this item is really impressive.
I love everything in this box, but I do have a couple of reservations.
First, I don’t really think the Vegetable Sticks and Koala’s March are Bokksu-type snacks. Not because they’re not delicious (they are) but because Bokksu is all about the unusual and artisanal. Yummy though these two snacks are, they are pretty common convenience store items. You can also pick them up in the UK without much difficulty.
My taste in coffee runs to Nespresso and Starbucks, and I’ve never liked instant coffee, with or without milk. It’s interesting to have these two coffee sticks, but I think the one left over will be kept only for the direst of emergencies. Still, it’s an interesting experiment. I did discover that the Beans & Roasters brand also make premixed bottles of iced coffee, rather like the bottles of Starbucks you can get at the supermarket.
As for everything else, the maple cookies were my favourite. I love maple syrup, and it’s a flavour that’s pretty hard to find in the UK. I also think the retro package design is absolutely beautiful. The Horn cookies are also pretty damn good, as are the rusks.
There were just two savory items in this box; I don’t count the mini rice crackers as I find sweet soy pretty sweet. I’d probably appreciate at least one more savory item, but nonetheless I think this is an impressive selection of flavours.
Even though the maple cookies are my favourite, I’m very pleased about having the ChikaLicious cobbler. This is about as exclusive as it gets, and I’ve definitely added ChikaLicious to our list of places to go when we visit Japan!
Click here to read more Bokksu reviews.
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Here’s some blurb for you:
Bokksu is unlike any other Japanese snack box. We are totally in love with Japanese snacks, which is why it is our mission to craft authentic Japanese gourmet experiences for our Members around the world. We source directly from artisanal producers in Japan, so you won’t find our delicious snacks and teas anywhere else.
Classic Bokksu will take you on a gourmet journey through Japan each month. From Hokkaido white chocolate butter cookies to Kyoto handground matcha to Kyushu mango chiffon cakes, get the experience of tasting authentic Japanese snacks delivered right to your door. Each box comes with:
- 20-25 delicious Japanese snacks and a tea pairing curated around a cultural theme
- Our Tasting Guide that explains the story and flavors of each product in your box
- The option to pause or cancel anytime
- Free shipping worldwide
Payment is made upfront for the subscription period. The price starts at $39 (around £29) for a month-to-month subscription, and the monthly cost is reduced the longer the subscription! You can find more details here.
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A different version of this review was first published on allsubscriptionboxes.co.uk.
