TokyoTreat Sakura Subscription Box

I reviewed the February 2023 TokyoTreat subscription box recently and they kindly sent over their newest box to help me celebrate cherry blossom season with candy, snacks and more from Japan. Take a look at our favourite items and how to get this box yourself.

This is the May 2023 box and it’s still available so don’t read on if you’re a subscriber and haven’t received yours yet! The theme is Sakura Starlight Snackfest with candy, snacks, drinks and noodles for a night time cherry blossom viewing party. I really loved the box design this time and had to take a photo with the falling blossoms in my town.

Here’s everything that was inside (L-R, top to bottom): Sweet & salty spring chips, Piccola sakura matcha, Umaibo mentaiko, Ghana matcha truffle / Bisco mini strawberry cream, Mini peach ramune, Sakura cherry bouchee / Wasabi potato snack, Yamato curry senbei, Mini cherry mochi, Puku Puku Tai strawberry / Nyumen soy sauce ramen, Kobe sparkling apple juice, Strawberry choco pop-out fortune, KitKat Banana Caramel. Everything is vegetarian, except for the ramen and Umaibo.

Since we just did a long detailed full box review, this time I’ve picked out some of the most interesting items and I also got Nicolette and our mum to join in for extra opinions.

As always, there was a full bag of KitKats – this time in banana caramel flavour. It was clear from the packaging that something fun was going on with these and using the Google Translate app helped us discover each KitKat has a conversation topic for your picnic gang. Some of the ones we got included ‘what are your memories of spring?’, ‘what was your most recent dream?’ and the impossible choice of ‘sandwich or onigiri?’. If you’re a banana fan, you’ll love these but we found it a little bit too artificial and sweet.

I wasn’t expecting to get cake! These are a light sponge filled with cherry cream and printed with a sakura flower on top. It did get stuck to the packaging and ruin the design a bit but it still looked very pretty. It tasted good too, though it could maybe do with a bit more cream.

One of my favourite things about the TokyoTreat boxes is that you get instant noodles and this time it has little cherry blossoms floating on top. Instead of dried noodles, this had the soft ones that you warm up in boiling water and drain through the special lid. Then you add the soup mix and fresh water and dig in. The little blossoms look so cute and the egg and greens add some nice colour too. The broth was light and savoury and this made for a nice quick lunch.

The Piccola sticks were also very pretty and each pink and white striped biscuit tube is filled with matcha cream. They’re very light and crumbly and the biscuit is sweet enough to offset any bitterness.

These matcha truffles are even more fancy and a real treat for the matcha lover. They have a milk chocolate centre with a layer of matcha cream and a dusting of matcha powder. You only get a few in the box but they’re rich enough that you’ll want to savour them.

These Hokkaido potato ruffled chips seem quite plain on the first taste but the more you eat, the more complex they get with a real sweetness. They’re very light too so it’s easy to eat the whole bag.

These tiny mochi were the surprise hit and turned out to have a lovely cherry flavour and a chewy texture. They’re so small you get a toothpick included to help you pick them up! I would definitely buy these again, and look out for other flavours.

The rest of the snacks look great too and I’m really impressed with this box. It gives you a chance to pretend you’re at a Japanese festival and the booklet explains how each item matches a snack you’ll find there. I’m also very glad I had family visiting as the interactive items were a lot of fun with a group. We enjoyed discussing the KitKat topics, eating mochi off a toothpick and trying our luck with the fortune chocolates (which includes a full English translation). If you’ve always wanted to visit Japan during cherry blossom season, this box is a nice alternative while you wait for your dream trip.

Pricing & Shipping

You can order the Sakura Starlight Snackfest box from TokyoTreat until May 15th so don’t miss out if you like the look of this theme. It costs $37.50 (£31) per month with free tracked shipping worldwide from Japan and there are further discounts if you subscribe for a block of 3, 6 or 12 months.

If you don’t fancy snacks, the TokyoTreat family also includes YumeTwins (kawaii) , nomakenolife (beauty & makeup) and Sakuraco (traditional snacks, tea & home goods). SCK readers get $5 off any YumeTwins subscription with the code CUTEKAWAII. You can also shop at their TokyoTeat Mini Mart online store for seasonal and hard-to-find Japanese snacks, candy and drinks.

(Box was provided by TokyoTreat for review but all words and photographs are my own.)