Today we’ll be taking a look at the August issue of the Oyatsu Box which is a monthly $25 subscription service for Japanese snacks by Oyatsu Cafe. They are operating out of Chiba, Japan and are always including merchandise from different anime / video game series in each box. They have been in the Japanese food business for years and are entering the 7th month of subscriptions with Oyatsu Box and are quickly approaching 1500 customers!
Now lets take a look at what’s inside the August issue of the Oyatsu Box:
Hi-Chew Premium – Grape
Hi-Chew is a is a fruit-flavored chewy Japanese candy and is known for having a variety of flavors. The flavor I tried were the premium grape flavor which is made from selected ingredients for an utterly fantastic grape flavor. They have a thick outer coating with a soft and chewy center. The grape flavor is very powerful and gets more vivid as you chew. I’m a big fan of grape flavored candies, I would recommend to give these a try if you see them.
Umaibo Premium – Mentaiko & Camembert Cheese
I always love having the chance to try different umaibo flavors. So far I have tried the teriyaki hamburger flavor and tonkatsu (pork) flavor. Today I had the chance to try the Umaibo Camembert Cheese (Blue) and Umaibo Japanese Mentaiko (Red) premium edition. If your taste palate isn’t that refined, I would not recommend to try these.
As soon as I opened the Umaibo Camembert Cheese (Blue) you can instantly pick up the overwhelming smell of a good cheese. The taste is very similar to the taste of Brie cheese but it is much stronger and somewhat creamy. Just like every other Umaibo, it has the consistency similar to Cheetos since it is a corn based snack.
The Japanese Umaibo Mentaiko (Red) is based on a Japanese dish made of pollock roe, or eggs, pickled in various ingredients which makes it spicy. The fishy smell is very overwhelming but it tastes better than it smells. You get a light taste of pollock roe and cod. I prefer the Umaibo Camembert Cheese (Blue) personally.
Koikeya Scon – Japanese BBQ
When you think of barbecue salted snacks you expect super spicy tomato or ketchup flavored potato chips, right? Well not in Japan! In Japan, it tends to mean the snack is meant to resemble barbecued meat. These BBQ corn twists (like Cheetos but lighter in texture) have a light scent as you open the packet. They have an intense BBQ meaty taste which make you crave them more. They’re quite salty and work together well with a beer.
Rilakkuma Honey Butter Pretzels
The packaging is covered in Rilakkuma and it’s so cute you may not want to open them. These are honey butter pretzels which have a light butter and honey taste that is not overwhelming while being absolutely crunchy.
Dragonball Z Gummy Candy & Collectable Card
I was pretty excited to see this in the box, Dragonball Z was a big part of my childhood. I was even more ecstatic to pull a SSJ3 Goku card (I instantly put it in a card sleeve!). The gummy candy I got was Goku’s kanji (悟), pronounced go and meaning “awaken”, it was the kanji that Goku adopted after his training in preparation for the upcoming battles on Planet Namek. I haven’t ate the candy as of yet but I’m assuming it just tastes like any other generic gummy candy. The card that came with this is exclusive to Japan only. I would definitely buy more of these to collect all of the cards.
Koala no March – Strawberry
These cute little crispy shaped koala cookies are known as Koala no March. They have over 200 different flavors which have a delicious sweet filling and each cookie has different koala designs. The outer shell is crispy and very soft on the inside, the strawberry flavor is very intense and tasty. When it comes to Japanese snacks, these are one of the most well known and it’s for a good reason; they’re one of the best.
Sushi Shop Style Miso Soup
Miso soup is a traditional Japanese soup consisting of a stock called “dashi” into which softened miso paste is mixed. Many ingredients are added depending on regional and seasonal recipes, and personal preference. This bag contains 3 pouches of instant miso soup, crafted in the style of the Yamato Sushi Restaurant which is located in the world-famous Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo.
Miso soup tends to taste salty with a slight soybean flavor. It’s hard to pinpoint on the taste due to the fact it has no particular taste to it. I will use the other 2 pouches to marinate chicken or fish and then grill it.
Japanese Drink Candy Mix
The packet represents a Japanese drink machine. Which is quite awesome because each candy represents a different drink. The different drinks included in this packet are: Dakara, C C Lemon, Natchan, Aserora, and Dekavita. When you see a drink machine in Japan (whether you’ve visited Japan or seen them in an anime/J-Drama) you want to try them all, with this packet of candy you get to chance to do so!
There are 5 drinks and 5 individually wrapped candies for each flavor, totaling to 25 candies in the bag.
Dakara
This has the refreshing taste of white grapefruit. It only has a small hint of sweetness and is quite sour.
C.C. Lemon
Has a fizzy texture, which is really nice and a hint of lemon tart flavor. The candy is quite hard so I wouldn’t recommend trying to chew it. The flavor is very consistent with the actual drink.
Natchan! Orange
Who thought a drink packaging could be so cute? Not only is it cute, it’s really tasty. It has a smooth flavor just like a cold glass of concentrated orange juice. Magically, it has the same texture as the drink. The candy is smooth in texture and the taste is sweet and orangey.
Dekavita
This comes in a brown bottle in Japan, just like Supermalt and looks deadly. It’s very fizzy, sour and has no real sweetness at all. It reminds me of a really sour lemon candy. The texture is rough just like the taste. If you like sour candies, this one is for you.
Aserora
The taste of this reminds me of expensive cough medicine which tastes like honey and lemon. It’s really sweet and tastes so good. It tastes like pure honey with a hint of lemon. I would definitely recommend these out of them all. It’s a shame only 5 of these came in the pack…
Well that wraps up the August Japanese Snack Subscription from Oyatsu Box. What candy from this post would you like to try? If you’ve tried Japanese snacks/candy before, which ones? Let us know in the comments below.
