Ever wondered what kind of snacks you would normally munch on if you were in Japan? From crazy Kit Kat flavours to chewy grape flavoured candy, J-List’s Snack Box seems to have pretty much everything covered. They do ship out to the United Arab Emirates, so we were able to get our hands on one, courtesy of the super nice folks over at J-List.
I’ll be posting each individual snack along with whatever little tidbit of information I could dig up about it. While we couldn’t try them all out before posting the article, we’ll be sure to mention what we think about their taste in an update later down the line. Now, without further ado, let’s see what they’ve got inside.
First off, we have the all-important box that encloses the goodies. It was lovingly packed and even contained a thank you note from them along with a discount code for their website. Just from opening the box I knew I was in for something special.
Now, proceeding with the contents in no particular order, we have here Setouchi Lemon Lotus Root Chips. Similar to regular potato chips, these are fried lotus roots flavoured with the refreshing taste of Setouchi Lemons. Setouchi is a city in the Okayama Prefecture of Japan known for their hand in agriculture, so their lemons must clearly be a cut above the rest.
Wonderfully wacky cover aside, these are Potato Caramel candies straight from Hokkaido. One of the most famous Japanese producer of potatoes, Hokkaido takes great pride in their snackage and I love it. Consisting primarily of condensed milk with dried mashed potato to give it additional flavour, I’ll likely have to order more of these in the near future to keep me satisfied.
Referred to as “dagashi” or cheap candy in Japan, Morokoshi Wa Taro are crispy corn snacks not unlike the corn puff snacks we have here in the Middle East. They seem to be quite popular in Japan, especially among kids.
Next up, we have the Morinaga Potelong pizza flavor that instantly remind me of french fries, potato sticks or Stix. Similar to a quite a few snacks in Japan, these do contain pork so be sure to look them up before you have them in case you have any aversion to them.
Chewy sweets have always been a personal favourite of mine, like Fruitella. Hailing from Japan, the Morinaga Nama Hi-Chew Grape is one of the few Japanese candies that I’ve seen western translated labels for. Made from concentrated 100 percent fresh grape juice, there’s nothing quite like a taste of grape to brighten your day.
Speaking of chocolate, we have the Meltykiss Original Chocolate, another distinct representative of Japanese chocolate. While this one does come in three different varieties, this is the Limited Winter 2016 edition. With milky chocolate that supposedly “melts in your mouth like a snowflake”, these Meltykiss chocs will likely be reserved for special occasions or to cheer me up when Santa fails to show up on time.
There are approximately 15 unique Japanese Kit Kat, and we have with us the Kit Kat Wasabi flavour. There is absolutely no way to predict what it would taste like, but since Nestle is known to have their way with chocolate in a number of delightful ways, I can only imagine that this is one for the taste buds to figure out.
As we enter into the winter month, this bottle of Kirin World Kitchen Spicy Hot Grape Juice will likely find a perfect home here. With a mix of spices like cinnamon, cardamom and cloves, concentrate Concord grape juice and various fruity extracts, oddly enough, this Japanese snack seems to be modelled after something German. I’ll undoubtedly have to heat this up and have it next to a fireplace on a cold, snowy (okay, misty) night with a good book.
One of the most popular meals in Japan goes Christmas-y, with the Ippeichan Yakisoba Short Cake flavor. While Yakisoba doesn’t normally come in short cake flavour with “vanilla mayo”, Myojo Foods is looking to turn the whole concept of the food on its head. Clearly meant to be a desert, the instant yakisoba pack comes with fruit toppings as well as a savoury sauce with… beef extract? Okay Japan, you win this round.
I know it’s hard to make out what it is, but this is called Funwari Meijin and it’s a savoury rice cracker snack made by Ichigoseika. “Funwari” basically translates to “fluffy”, which is indicative of the light texture of the snack. While it has a bit of salty and sweet going on with it’s ingredients, this is just a single pack that comes in a bigger box. I would like to believe that means the clever people at J-Box know just how good it is and want me to end up buying a ton more once I’m through with this one. I must not falter.
Another Holiday special, the FritoLay Rich Giza White Cheese is about as snacky as snacks get. I’m sure we’re all quite aware of their work, Frito Lay being the masterminds behind Lay’s chips, Cheetos and Doritos. With the flavour of white cheese and an interesting design, there’s a little bit of intrigue from just the packet even though the name might seem familiar.
Now we’re talking! Decorer Tiramisu Chocolate is an absolute treat and I was quite surprised to recognize it from the list of snacks the box came with. While I have heard of Decorer, I never got around to finding them here and I can’t wait to get people hooked on to these. Each piece has an almond encased in creamy chocolate cheese and I think that’s just about as good a description as I can offer.
Based on the character from the popular anime Crayon Shin-Chan, this packet of Crayon Shinchan Chocobi Ramune contains his favourite chocolate biscuit-like snacks. While I haven’t watched the anime, it did show up from time to time and I appreciate the inclusion of anime-related snacks in the box. Each of the little star-shaped biscuits comes in a smaller packet inside and I’ll have to watch the anime to figure out whether that has some kind of importance.
Simple enough, the Choco Pie Rum Raisin is a familiar-looking cake sandwich with a rum-raisin jam inside. While it’s the alcohol content in it that makes it not so halal, I’ve never really liked raisins either. It’s holiday themed though and ties in quite well with the rest of the snacks.
And lastly, we have the Bourbon Petite Cheese Cake, which is quite simply cake squares held together with sweetened cream cheese and yes, they do contain a bit of alcohol as well. Snacks aside, the packaging held up surprisingly well, jammed between the rest of the packets. The people at J-Box sure know how to pack a snack.
And that was everything I found in the J-List Box – Snack Box DX January Edition. For more information on the box I received, check out JBOX. If you want to pick one up too, be sure to head over to J-List’s Snack Box website and pre-order yours.
