Showing posts with label snacks. Show all posts

First Sakuraco box!

 


 Saw an ad for this on instagram and I guess since I was following matcha and asian starbucks accounts that I was ad targeted and boy they got me good lol!  This box service apparently just started so I was able to get the grand opening discount. But it seems this company has a handful of Japan type monthly boxes so it seems to be established already. Sakuraco box focuses on the tea culture in Japan. So each box has tea, sweets, and some sort of tea ware. Its mostly sweets so far. The sweets are more on the traditional side which is what I like rather than snacks like Pocky. Each box will have exactly 20 items inside. The price for one month is $37.50 with the 1 year sub its $32.50 per box. I just got the box and I've enjoyed what I've tried so far. Sure its a bit pricey, but I think its worth it as someone who likes tea and Japanese sweets and lives too far away from Japan.

Since they ship from Tokyo, they do charge shipping separately so shipping costs me about $12 per box so each box cost me $44 with their grand opening discount and 6 boxes sub discount. That makes each item cost $2.20 for me. This price will be a bit higher without discounts. I think if you paid full price for one box its about $2.50 each. Some of the snacks are bite sized and small like about 1.5" small. Its up to you if you feel ok with paying that but the sweets so far all vary in sizes but generally compared to American sweets they're small. The box is only 8" x 8" x 4" but shipping was fast. Took 3 days from when DHL picks up the box to delivering it to my door. I probably shouldn't worry about anything melting when summer comes around since shipping is fast. Did anything break? Only thing that broke was the straw roll cookie and one of the monaka got a tiny bit crushed. Everything else looks fine!

 


The sweets are nice but I wish there was more tea options than just one. This box is sakura themed so the tea is pickled sakura flowers which is pretty to look at since its the full flowers. They only include two packets of it so only two cups of tea. The contents of the next box is already revealed and it seems there's always a certain type of sweets or snack includes. Other than two servings of tea, there's at least one cake type sweets, a cup sweets (like pudding), monaka, candy type, and cracker like snacks which so far are the senbei which are shrimp crackers. Of course this could change but so far all this is fine with me. They do put info on allergies or whether it vegetarian. 

UPDATE: So I've gone through the second box and have something to note. Some snacks can go stale since some won't include the little preservation packet so be sure to eat the cake types and other soft snacks that don't have the preservation packet in their packaging asap!

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Graze Box 5

My honest review of Graze snack box subscription. I will review each snack since they give me new ones every time. As a disclaimer I was not contacted by Graze for this at all, and this is my own paid subscription to the service to try out and ended up liking it.


Pizza Margherita is a mix of basil crunchini, cheese cashews, and mini tomato breadsticks. This is a tasty mix. The crunchini are like croutons, and its quite flavorful. The cashews are pretty cheesy that the cashew flavor is rather light. I don't taste tomato on the breadsticks but I still enjoyed them.


The Japanese Miso Soup is a soup paste with a side of dried edamame. The paste is to be mixed with hot water to make the soup. The majority of miso soups I've had have MSG in it so I mostly know it to be rather salty and savory. But Graze's miso soup doesn't have MSG, but the taste is quite lacking. It has a sour taste that reminds me of the sour and bitterness from canned goods. The edamame were ok, but I prefer fresh warm edamame. Overall, this was the most disappointing snack I've gotten from Graze. I was really looking forward to it as well. I couldn't even finish it.


Peaches and Cream is a mix of passion fruit white chocolate, peach drops, coconut, and yogurt seeds. The fruit along with the yogurt and chocolate is a good mix. The coconut didn't really fit in in my opinion. It may not be the healthiest snack, but it taste good.


Summer Berry Flapjack is oat flapjacks with berry infused cranberries. Another good flapjack. Nothing really exceptional about these, but they are simple. Its like a granola in bar form. Its just oats, cranberries, and sugar.


Deconstructed Carrot Cake is a mix of carrot chews, cinnamon raisins, ginger fudge, and walnuts. Other than the walnuts, each of the items don't taste what they are named. The gummy taste like apple juice than carrot. The raisins just taste like normal raisins, and the fudge doesn't have a ginger taste in a number of them. There are a couple pieces that did have ginger in them though. This mix is pretty good though, but it doesn't really have that carrot cake taste to me.


Creamy Ranch Kern Pops are dried slightly popped corn kernels covered in seasoning powder. I don't like kernels that much cause they are hard, but these somehow are slightly popped so they have a chip like crunch and hardness which is easier to eat. The ranch seasoning is pretty tasty.


The Honeycomb Almond Protein Granola Topper is a new snack. This granola has almonds, chocolate covered honeycomb, and soya protein crispies. The soya crispies are tiny little rice puffs that blends right in with the oats and barley that I didn't notice it at first. The chocolate is the only sweet thing in the granola. It has a coffee taste to it to me, but I like it.


Last is the Triple Berry Smoothie. This is a dried fruits mix of bananas, mini strawberries, cranberries, and blueberries. Not as good as the previous fruit mixes I've gotten from them. The bananas are strangely small and didn't taste like bananas. They're probably from the baby bananas which i haven't had in years so I don't remember what they taste like. The cranberries was the only one that's sweet in this mix.

If you're interested in Graze you can get their free sample box or use Promo Code: CVH79FPVB to get your 1st and 5th box FREE! 
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Graze Box 4


My honest review of Graze snack box subscription. I will review each snack since they give me new ones every time. As a disclaimer I was not contacted by Graze for this at all, and this is my own paid subscription to the service to try out and ended up liking it. Sadly yet again this box didn't include the last soup from their list that I didn't try so I won't be able to review that.


First is the Thai Sweet Chili Bites, one of their dipping snacks. If you like the sweet chili sauces from asian dishes this one just like it. It is thicker too so it goes on the rice crackers like honey. Its a very flavorful and fragrant sauce which makes the plainer tasting rice crackers good when dipped. Pretty good nothing bad to say about it!


The Lemon Drizzled Flapjacks is rustic rolled oats with zesty lemon and yogurt drizzles. These are the most moist flapjacks I've gotten so far so maybe they're fresher? The lemon is really fragrant which makes it enjoyable to eat. The sweetness is just right too. Recommend these and hope that they are usually this moist.


Vitamin C Crush is a dried fruits mix of mango, pineapple, and coconut flakes. There's a lot of flakes though they are a bit tasteless which is good cause I'm not a fan of coconut. I'm not one of those who don't like it cause of its texture. While its not the best tasting fruits mix it is still good for when you need something to eat, but have no appetite or energy to make a proper meal like in the morning. The portions is a little small compare to the other snacks, but it claims to have half a daily serving of vitamin C in this.


Peppermint Patty is a mix of almonds, yogurt seeds, peppermint raisins, and dark chocolate buttons. The button is huge so I only had 3 which isn't much. While raisins are kind of annoying as the go to filler the flavored ones are really good. This one is peppermint which sounds weird at first, but I really enjoyed it. The yogurt seeds are yogurt covered sunflower seeds. These are good too and there's a lot of them in the pack so I liked that. The almonds are just plain raw and without skins. This mix is pretty good and unique.


Super Forrest Fruits is a dried fruits mix of blueberries, lingonberries, soft apple pieces, and cherry raisins. A pretty good mix. Its sweet and sour and luckily there aren't too many raisins. I didn't really taste much cherry in the raisins. The apple pieces are definitely soft. Really enjoyed it and ate it quite quickly too.


Chocolate Pretzel is as the name implies, pretzels with chocolate dip. The pretzels are more cracker-like than the typical store bought ones. They are lightly salted which is fine, but I like salt so I'd be fine if it was normally salted. The dip is practically just like nutella since it is a chocolate and hazelnut spread. Hard for me to imagine anyone not liking this snack especially kids.


Hickory Smoked BBQ is a mix of barbaque peas, hickory smoked cashews, and corn nuts. Its a crunchy hard mix. The cashews are a little sweet taste to them and the smoked bit is a subtle after taste. The peas don't have much of a bbq taste unless the spices stuck to them. The corn nuts don't really have a unique taste to them. They're just filler since its the most out of the 3 in the mix. The mix isn't too bad, but I'm not a bbq person so not sure if it actually taste like its hickory smoked. I'm not a huge fan of hard crunchy mixes so this isn't something I would want often, and would probably not get it again.


Soy Roasted Seeds is just a mix of pumpkin and sunflower seeds thats been seasoned with soy sauce. They just taste like salted seeds. There's a lot more sunflower seeds than pumpkin in it. If you like salty stuff this would fulfill that craving, but if not then this snack would be rather bland for you.

Pretty good box though I did take a longer time finishing this than before. If you're interested in Graze you can get their free sample box or use Promo Code: CVH79FPVB to get your 1st and 5th box FREE! 
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Graze Snacks Box 3


My honest review of Graze snack box subscription. I will review each snack since they give me new ones every time. As a disclaimer I was not contacted by Graze for this at all, and this is my own paid subscription to the service to try out and ended up liking it. Sadly this box didn't include the last soup from their list that I didn't try so I won't be able to review that.


First is my favorite type of snack from Graze, the dried fruits mix. This time I got the Garden of England which is a mix of mini strawberries, apple pieces, and blackcurrants. Thankfully no raisins or cranberries in this one! The strawberries are definitely small like a raisin. While there's no added "sugar" each piece does have concentrated juice listed in the ingredients list. The apples have lemon juice, strawberries has grape juice, and the blackcurrants have apple juice. Its labeled to be 1/2 cup of fruit which is hard to believe granted how small the snack portions they give. Overall I do enjoy this mix. The pieces are flavorful.


White Chocolate with Wild Blueberry Toasts is one of their dipping snacks. I'm not a fan of white chocolate so I wasn't expecting to like it, but woah did this surprise me! The toasts are dried and hard like croutons and have bits of blueberries and blueberry infused cranberries in them. They have quite the blueberry aroma. They didn't taste much by themselves, but when I dip them in white chocolate the blueberry taste really pulled through somehow but not always. The dip is quite sweet but not overly so. It actually made me each the whole thing in one sitting. I usually don't eat it all at once unless its soup or popcorn. Definitely recommend this one if you have a sweet tooth.


The Twist of Black Pepper Popcorn is their other microwave popcorn with obviously black pepper. You microwave it for 2 minutes and I think I should have stopped it a little early since it did have a bit of a burning taste. The black pepper isn't much and the taste is subtle. It just taste like regular salted popcorn mostly. The popcorn is a tad smaller than the store bought popcorn so its not in small portions like the other snacks. I like black pepper so I was hopping this would have that kick, but it didn't have much of a kick so I was disappointed. Overall, this is hardly that much different from the regular popcorn.


Sesame Garlic Crunch is a mix of garlic sesame sticks, oat bran sesame sticks, and multigrain soy crackers. I couldn't tell if there was a differences in the sticks since they look exactly the same but I think the mix wasn't as mixed since I've only tasted one garlic stick and the rest were oat bran which was much plainer tasting than the garlic. The soy crackers I love though. If I could get this with just soy and garlic it be good. I didn't like the oat bran and it was the majority of the mix.


The Zesty Chili Lime Cashews is just flavored cashews. Its kind of boring with just one kind of nut so I think I would enjoy this better if it had other nuts. Its pretty zesty though I wish it was spicier. Nothing really to say about this.


Cinnamon Pretzel is a mix of poppyseed pretzels and cinnamon honey almonds. The almonds has a dry coat of honey and cinnamon and its quite flavorful and tasty. I had the poppyseed pretzels in another snack mix so they are the same. Though this batch didn't have much flavorful poppyseed as before so it came out plainer than usual which is fine. I like this mix though.


The Salted Fudge & Peanut Cookie is a mix of peeled and skin peanuts, vanilla fudge, and chocolate cookies. There's a lot of peanuts in this mix. Its good when you eat a mix of them, though the peanuts themselves are rather tasteless. The mini cubed fudge is tasty though and wish there was more. The chocolate cookies are good too and also wish there was more of it than the peanuts. The peanuts didn't make this mix bad though. It is a pretty good mix and would recommend it.


Last is the Vitamin E Defense which is a mix of hazelnut. peanut, cranberry, and raisins. Not the most exciting mix since its not seasoned, but I ate this while I was working and hungry so it didn't bothered me then. Peanuts and raisins are already common in their mixes so this is not the most appetizing mix. Though if you ever need to eat something, but not in the mood for different flavors this is pretty good to munch on. Definitely something you won't feel guilty eating.

This box wasn't the most exciting I've had so I didn't finish it as fast as the previous boxes. I still enjoyed the snacks and didn't terrible dislike any of them. If you're interested in Graze you can get their free sample box or use Promo Code: CVH79FPVB to get your 1st and 5th box FREE! 

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Graze Snacks Box 2


This is a review of my second 8 snack box from Graze. You can read about my first box here and the sample box here.


The soups are still the ones I wanted to try to most and this time I got Pho the popular Vietnamese noodle soup dish. I like to go out and eat this as much as I can so I will compare with Graze's Pho. The soup base paste is the same dark color as the Tom Yum. The paste has a mix of spices and asian sauces like fish sauce, chili, and soy bean. Normally Pho has a beef or sometimes chicken broth. The dried mix is small piece of rice noodle, bits of shiitake mushrooms, and sesame seeds which is kind of a strange mix. I decided to use 6oz of water instead of 8oz since I find it to be too much compare to the dried bits. The soup paste is very fragrant and you will smell it. It may not be appealing to some, but I don't mind it. The soup is a dark color and is a lot spicier than Graz'e Tom Yum. Its also has sourness. Spicy and sour aren't in the beef broth of Pho soups, but this soup is good. Overall, this really isn't a typical Pho, but its not bad. Still too little solids to my liking.


Next is the Cocoa & Vanilla Protein Flapjack. Now I wasn't into the previous flapjacks, but this one is quite chocolatey and delicious! They are like the chocolate rice cereals I used to have as a kid. The flapjacks hast rolled oats, soy, flaxseeds, sunflower seeds, cocoa powder and vanilla flavoring. I definitely recommend this!



I didn't know they had this, but Graze also has microwavable popcorn. They only have salted and black pepper. I received the salted kind. The instructions and packaging are the same as store bought ones. I microwave for 2 minutes and pull open the bag. There isn't butter on these, but it has some oil and its salted pretty nicely. Most of the popcorn had the perfect white color and surprising none were burnt! Of course there's some unpopped kernels, but the bag doesn't recommend reusing the bag to pop them. The size is snack size like, but I think its a good amount. I'm not big on popcorn so I wouldn't get them again, but if you do I would give them a try at least. I want to see what the black pepper would taste like though.


Peachy Orchard is their dried fruit mix of pear, rhubarb, and peach gummies. Another yummy dried fruit mix. The peach drops are like the Asian fruit gummies but a lot smaller. The rhubard doesn't have the most appealing color, and its kind of tough. Its good though it does have added sugar. The pear is plain dried fruit with lemon juice. Its a nice sweet treat and I'm glad that it doesn't have raisins for once.


The Strawberries and Cream Granola Topper is just oats, barley, freeze dried strawberries, and yogurt covered strawberries. I didn't have anything to use this to top with so I just ate it by itself. The yogurt pieces is pretty sweet that sort of balances out the plainer taste of the oats and dried strawberries. I never really have anything to use this topper with plus I'd have to eat this with a spoon so I probably won't want this again.


New York Everything Bagel are poppy seed, onion, and sesame sticks. I'm not into sticks snacks so I wasn't liking this at first. These are convenient when you want to snack on something though. The sesame does make this taste like an asian snack. These aren't too bad overall.


Snickerdoodle Dip is cinnamon pretzel sticks with snickerdoodle dip. So far this si the best dipping snack from Graze I've tried so far. It smells like Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal. The pretzel stick is not that hard on the teeth but it is quite plain tasting by itself. The dip has the consistency of peanut butter. The dip taste like a graham cracker. It has a mild sweetness which is nice. This isn't too bad and wouldn't mind getting it again though its not like I would be excited in getting this again.


Last one is the Punchy Protein Nuts which is a mix of almonds, chili lime cashews, peanuts, and pistachios. Only the cashews are flavored and it does give quite a kick. I'm not a nuts snack person, but I do appreciate the variety in this mix. I do wish the almonds where cut up instead of left whole since they were the hardest nut in the mix. Nothing really special to saw about this snack. The chili lime taste is nice though I wouldn't mind if all the nuts had this seasoning instead of just one kind that has it.

Overall, another decent box. There's still one more soup to try and a bunch of other snacks so I will continue to get and review these snacks. If you're interested you can get their free sample box or use Promo Code: CVH79FPVB to get your 1st and 5th box FREE! 
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Graze Snacks Box 1


So Graze has a summer discount code when you sign up with them. You get a discount on a shared box and/or the 8 snacks box. I got the 8 snacks box and its $2 off the regular price so its ended up to be $9.99. This discount is still on so be sure to take advantage of it if you want to try their snacks!

The box arrived a week and a half after I placed the order. In my samples box review I said I wanted to try their soups, but it seems they only just give out one of each type of snack so I only got one of the soups. That is the one thing I really don't like is not being able to pick whatever you want in the box. The box is shipped from New Jersey also.


The soup I got is Tom Yum soup. I've had this in Thai restaurants and really like the spicy and citrus taste to it. Graze's Tom Yum has a paste and dried ingredients that I stir in 8oz or 1 cup of hot water. The taste it not bad! It was mostly broth since the dried ingredients were barely enough to fill in the one cup of water. It felt like I was fishing for them. The broth is decent and there's no msg at least. The noodles are very small and the dried zucchini didn't fully rehydrate so it still had that dried fruit toughness. Overall this isn't too bad. Its a nice quick way to have this soup.

The Banana Caramel is banana shortbread with caramel sauce. I've had the caramel sauce before so its still the same as before. Its has a nice mildly sweet taste, and it coats the shortbread nicely. The shortbread didn't have much or any banana flavor. It is a good shortbread though. Its not too hard and breaks easily in my mouth. The pack only came with 3 small pieces. This isn't too bad.


The Raspberry and Coconut Muffin is a mix of raspberry cranberries, coconut shavings, amaretti drops, and almonds. I'm not a fan of coconut but this coconut is rather subtle despite that there's a lot of it. The cranberries are really sweet. The almonds and the little cookies give this mix a nice crunch. This mix is pretty good.


Stars and Stripes is a mix of fruit gummies and dried fruit. The stars are blackcurrant,  the strips are raspberry, and there's dried blueberry flavored cranberries mixed in. This has a sweet berry taste though it just like any other fruit gummies or chews. If you like these kind of snacks then these are pretty good.


Tropical Daiquiri is a dried fruit mix. It has green mango, lime raisins, and pineapple. These dried fruit are easy to eat. It does have a nice tropical taste to it. There's a lot more raisins than the other fruits. The lime raisins are good though. This is a decent dried fruit mix. Nothing really special or amazing about it.


Herby Bread Basket is a mix of crackers and croutons. It has basil baguettes, garlic crostini, and oregano rice crackers. Probably the least healthiest thing I've gotten from this snack service. The long sticks are the basil baguettes are is pretty tasty. The crouton like ones are the garlic crostini, they just taste like plain croutons. And the dark caramel like cluster is the oregano rice crackers which is sweeter in taste than I thought they be. Not a fan of it. This mix is kind of too drying and bread-y for my liking, but it isn't too bad. I do like the basil sticks the best and wish there was more.


Roasted Chili Honey Peanuts and Almonds is a slightly sticky nuts mix. Some of these are spicier than others and some are sweet. Its pretty tasty for a nuts mix though its more sweet than spicy. Some pieces are harder than others and can clumps together. If you can't eat hard things I would not recommend this otherwise its ok.


 Spicy Sriracha Crunch is a mix of peas and pop corn kernels seasoned with sriracha, and jumbo corn. This mix is a lot spicier than the Chili mix above. I like Sriracha and spiciness so this is good to me. I'm not sure why corn kernels is a snack since its quite hard. I'm not a fan of eating the hard kernels and the jumbo one is pretty big. Its the size of a thumbnail! While I'm not a fan of the hard corn kernels, this mix is good. Wish they put this same kind of srircha seasoning something softer to eat than kernels.

That's all 8 snacks I got! So far I am quite liking this snack service more than NatureBox since its taste better despite the tiny portions. I've noticed they seem to like putting raisins and cranberries a lot into their mixes, and not in little amounts. I may end up getting sick of them if it keeps up. Have not disliked any of the snacks I've tried from them. So I definitely recommend giving them a try with their free trail or you can get your first and 5th box free with my referral code CVH79FPVB
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Graze Sample Snacks Box Review


Graze is like Nature Box where you get healthy snacks sent to your door. I decided to try it with their sample box which is free but you have to pay the $2 shipping. Compare to the Nature box sample box it is a lot smaller. It gave me 4 little 4 x 2.5" packs of their snacks. I like that they're in sealed plastic containers than bags.

Graze is a weekly, monthly, or bi weekly snack subscription box service. You can choose a 4 ($7) or 8 ($12) snacks per box. The snacks that goes in your box depends on what snacks you've labeled as "like" "try" "love" or "trash" which determines how often the snack gets sent to you. So you will have to look through their snacks in order to set your preference. I'm not a huge fan of this method as I would rather like to choose what I like specifically. They have some interesting snacks and their broth pastes are ones I'd like to try as well as their snacks that comes with a dip.

The Anytime Energizer is dried pear, cherries, and walnuts. These aren't freeze dried either which I prefer but the sun dried kind. The pears are chewy, and the cherries are really sweet. This mix is pretty good, but its just dried fruits and nuts so its not much to say about it.

Caramel Apple is dried apple slices with a caramel dip. The apples are small 1-2 inch pieces and the caramel is a mildly sweet sauce.The caramel isn't thick and doesn't drip. It coats the pieces nicely as well. The sauce is half filled in the cup, but its more than enough to coat the apples. There were 8 apple pieces in this snack. I do like the dip idea with these snacks, but this one in particular I'm not too into it. Would be a nice autumn time snack though.

Honeycomb Flapjack are little granola bars. This one contains rolled oats, honeycomb, and topped with a chocolate drizzle. Most of the chocolate got on the lid of the pack though.The pack came with 3 1 x 2" bars. These are soft and chewy. Its a bit plain and too much oats for my liking. It is the sweetest one in the box. They are good though the chocolate doesn't really add much to the flavor.

Last one Brooklyn Bites which is a mix of cheese caschews, poppyseed pretzelz, and roasted pumpkin seeds. The cashews have a nice cheesy bite to it. The poppyseeds are on the pretzels like salt would be so its not the typical salty pretzel. The poppyseeds gives it a subtle flavor. The pumpkin seeds take up most of this mix. There's nothing special about the seeds. I'm not a fan of mixes but this is pretty good! I rather enjoyed this one which is a surprise to me. Definitely recommend this one! Its my favorite one out of the four I got.

The packs are pretty small and for the 4 pack each are $1.75, and for the 8 pack its $1.50 each. They don't charge shipping so shipping is probably factored in the subscription price. Its not overly expensive or cheap. I do like that its cheaper than Nature box, but the snack sizes are like a fraction of what Naturebox gives. These packs are just a small handful of food so they're good for one person and not for a family. I thought the sample box had sample packs but they seem to be really the full size snacks they give since on their site they said the boxes should fit in most mailboxes. It may be good for those who are trying to portion control or calorie count their eating habits. The snacks are great sizes of lunch boxes too so it be good for students.

Overall, I definitely enjoyed the sample box more than Nature Box's samples. When you sign up for the sample box you have to put in your credit card to pay for shipping. A good ploy to get you signed up with their service really. Once you've confirmed the sample box order you can go into "orders" and cancel your regular recurring subscription box or postpone it. I do plan to use the 8 box to try more snacks that caught my interest so look forward to future reviews on those snacks!
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