It was as a pleasant surprise when TokyoTreat reached out us in September, offering their premium October 2021 Snack-Tastic Halloween box in exchange for an honest review.

In a day and age where finding an honest review is like digging up a blood diamond, TokyoTreat’s request felt like a higher calling. That, and the opportunity to taste authentic Japanese snacks felt like an offer that was too good to refuse.

Without much ado, let’s get to the main part.

What is TokyoTreat?

TokyoTreat aims to spread the love for Japanese candy and soda by creating and crafting handpicked subscription boxes filled with yummy Japanese snacks. The theme is unique every month, meaning you get to taste snacks and savories that are related to the seasons, festivals and special events in Japan.

TokyoTreat box is a subscription based product. For details about their pricing and subscription options click here.

Every premium box contains 17 Japan exclusive snacks, including one exclusive Japanese soda, Kitkat party packs, an assortion of Japanese snacks, Japanese crazy candy, crunchy chips, crackers and other stuffs.

The box we were slated to received was a Halloween themed one. So it goes without saying that the snacks all had “adorably spooky” written all over them.

First impressions:

When it comes to first impressions, I certainly can’t miss out the story behind how the box was delivered to us. Dispatched on 16th September, the TokyoTreat October 2021 box found its way to the customs office in India the very next day.

If it were a feel good story, we would have been signing the documents and collecting the package from DHL express the next day. But, life is a bed of roses, or more like withered roses with thorns sticking out to annoy you.

Fast delivery is indeed one of TokyoTreat’s plus points (credits due to DHL express). But, then our inexperience would turn out be huge roadblocks in the process. Well, receiving the October box so early would be weird. No?

Some of the importing processes related to the delivery were new to us. And by the time we waded through the swamps of registration and related bureaucracy, a month had already passed. While the rest of the TokyoTreat fam was opening the November 2021 box, here we were, eagerly waiting for our Halloweeen box to arrive.

Spooky indeed!

When the package was finally delivered after all the delay, we were super excited to unbox the October 2021 TokyoTreat Box and try out the yummy Japanese snacks that it had.

There were decent reviews about the packaging and the attention to detail TokyoTreat put in for their boxes. However, the box that we received wasn’t in the best of the condition.

But, like we mentioned, the delivery process wasn’t exactly smooth for us. So, it is hard to pinpoint the culprit in the case.

TokyoTreat October 2021 Box Review:

In TokyoTreat’s own words, Japanese snacks tend to get experimental around Halloween. And the October 2021 box was no exception as we got our hands on some of the best handpicked spooky snacks from Japan.

But boy, it did not disappoint.

Note: You need keep an open mind while you are tasting these products. That’s all we ask of you.

We flagged off our devouring session with the Mini Monster Fruit Candy, followed by the Red & Black Magic Gum. It was a sweet and sour start. The chewy candy that came in different fruit flavors was a delight. Personally we were fans of the strawberry flavour.

The magic gum did what it said it would. Armed with a strong cola flavour, it turned our tongue red and black. While this would be a great attraction for kids, allow me to shamelessly admit that I really enjoyed watching my tongue change colors. The black one was a instant hit. Nostalgia intensifies.

One thing we noticed was that the flavours were slightly different from what we usually found here. It was refreshing and a welcome change.

The sweet, sour and chewy stuffs made us crave for something salty and crispy. Let’s just say we went through the catalog that came along with the TokyoTreat box and chose the Umaibo Cheese to taste. Trust me, it was not a random pick from the lot.

The mellow cheese flavored snack acted as a palette changer. From sweet to cheesy, we experienced savories that were far off in the taste spectrum. And as we huddled over to decide what to pick next, we felt like connoisseurs, even if it was only for a bit.

The huddling over ended in us choosing the Pokemon Halloween Choco Corn, largely due to the adorable Pikachu it had on its cover. The choco corns too were shaped like Pikachu’s head. We totally enjoyed munching on them. The crunchiness of the snack accompanied with its chocolate flavor really stood out.

The next snack on the list literally had us acting like kids. Aren’t y’all curious to know which one it was?

Drum rolls…….

Aaaannnddddddd, we present you The Tonari Corn Halloween Butter Toast.

If we were to talk about the taste, the subtle butter toasted flavor instantly won our hearts. But its the shape of the snack that had us all forgetting our age. The hat shaped snack fit well on our fingers and we were more than happy to take our sweet time eating it like that.

Messy? Yes. Utterly enjoyable? YES!

As the pamphlet says, this snack indeed is bewitching.

We then moved on to the one snack that we recognized and craved to eat. The pocky. The October 2021 box from TokyoTreat had Pocky Crushed Strawberry. The sweet and crunchy cocoa base with strawberry topping lived up to its description of frightfully delicious.

The sweet and crunchy flavor left us craving for more.

After the pocky, we decided to try out all the Rice crackers, and rice based snacks. This included the Halloween New Mochitaro, Holland Senbei and the Full Moon Pon.

These trademark Japanese snacks won’t standout as anything special. But they are the perfect snacks for munching on a boring boring day and passing time. It also acted as a good palette refresher in our case. And it didn’t take much time for us to finish it all.

After a host of crunchy and salty snacks, we decided to go back to trying something sweet again. Our tastebuds were all going haywire (in a good way). Let me make this clear. If you aren’t familiar with Japanese snacks, this is going to be one hell of an experience for you. Not all flovors would be familiar, and you might have to acquire a liking to some of them.

But, it was all very goody goody for us!

Moving on, we tried the Happy Halloween Fugashi, followed by the Maple Butter Beer Ramune Candy and the Mini Strawberry Milk Chocolate Balls.

It is easy to mistake the Fugashi for a cotton candy due its texture and its taste. But it is a snack made out of what flour with stuffed insides. Don’t let the appearance of Fugashi fool you, this one is a winner! Melting slowly in your mouth, it is certain to capture your mind.

I’d also like to give out a special shout out (such social media influenced terms) to the fizzly fizzly Ramune candy. Definitely worth trying!

Keeping the Soda and the party Kitkat pack for the last, we tried the Halloween Pizza Snacks and Umaiwa Mentai Flavor next.

If you too were left wondering about the peculiar flavor of the Umaiwa, we have you covered. This peculiar (or surprising) flavor is none other than that of fish eggs pickled in chilli pepper (we googled it, honestly).

The Umaiwa was quite different from what we expected it to be and also pretty amazing. We finished it in no time. I don’t think we need to mention anything specific about the Pizza Snack. It was an instant favorite!

After munching through all of these, we sat back and slowly relished the apple cinnamon flavored Kitkat and the Calpis Soda Grape. It was a perfect way to end a snack-tastic day if you ask us.

Final Verdict:

Like I mentioned before, its imperative that you keep an open mind while trying out all the snacks in the TokyoTreat box. We reviewed the October 2021 box here, the other boxes will have different flavors and snacks depending on the occassion and the theme.

That said, as first time tasters of Japanese Snacks, its safe to say we were very impressed. The snacks, though not something totally out of this world. had flavors that were unique. It took some time for us to get used to it, but then as it grew on us, there was no way we could not love them.

The winners of the box would definitely be the pocky and the corn halloween butter toast. The pizza snacks and umaiwa mentai flavor come next followed by the mini monster fruit candy.

The October 2021 box lived up to its theme, with some frighteningly delicious handpicked snacks. You can know more about TokyoTreat and about their plans by clicking here.