WOWBOX has curated a special Valentines day Japanese snack box that’s filled with healthy and nutritious treats. It would make a really unique gift for your Valentines love – way better than a rose – it’s a delicious adventure!
We had the opportunity to review WOWBOX’s special health and beauty Japanese snacks box for Valentines Day 2021.
We checked out what was inside, taste tested and created this report so you can decide if WOWBOX will make your Valentines day sweetheart smile.
This box is one of two that WOWBOX has released for February, you can check their Valentines day 2021 Prefecture box review right here.
Is this box worth your money? Are the snacks good? Let’s find out.
#1 Gobochi Lucky Spice
This snack is local to the Gifu prefecture in Japan.
Japan has many different prefectures – or counties (kinda) – and each prefecture has it’s own unique local snacks.
Gobochi lucky spice chips aren’t potato like most other chips, these are made from the root of the Burdock plant. It’s sliced thinly then fried to a crispy texture and seasoned.
One theme I’ve found with Japanese snacks is that they use as much local ingredients as possible. The Burdock in these snacks is grown in Miyazaki, a town on the coast in South East Japan.
The seasoning for these chips was created by a butcher in Miyazaki and uses healthy additive free soy sauce and soup stock for extra flavor.
These snacks are Japanese style potato chips – except they use burdock roots. They have a savory taste with a sprinkle of salt. You get a plant-y texture instead of the crispness you’d typically find in a potato chip.
Gobochi Lucky Spice are flavorful and healthy to snack on. The packaging looked like they’d be spicy or hot – it’s bright orange – but there’s no heat at all.
#2 Tamatama Tomato
Tomato snacks! These are little snack balls made with sticky rice, sweet and sour tomatoes and onions.
Each one is individually packaged and protected and you can tell the freshness is sealed inside when you open one – a really rich, savory tomato aroma.
WOW, these have a strong tomato fragrance immediately after opening one of the single serve packets. The tomato is blended with other spices – very much savory. The sticky rice holds all the flavors together.
The tomato flavor is really intense, it’s hard to tell if it’s a sweet tomato or sour.
It’s both at the same time!
It completely takes over any over flavors you had in your mouth and hangs around for quite a while.
I’ve never had anything close to this. You have to experience these!
#3 Ryukyu Chocolate Pineapple
These are bite size Okinawa handmade dark chocolates with the perfect balance of caoco and raw cane sugar.
There’s a secret ingredient – pineapple!
The confectioners used crushed pineapple pulp for a really unique combination.
The dark chocolate caoco is sourced from Ghana and the brown sugar is from Tamara Island in the Okinawa prefecture. There’s a natural sweetness that’s not made from artificial ingredients.
The chocolate almost looks like unsweetened baking chocolate – it tastes similar to that too.
Not at all very sweet, but just a touch of sweetness.
The pineapple was a bit harder to identify, I’m not sure if I should be looking for pulp, freeze dried pieces or if it’s been completely incorporated into the chocolate.
I’d say this is healthy chocolate! After you’ve finished eating a piece, there aren’t any unnatural sweetener tastes – a common theme in Japanese snacks!
#4 Feve Pecan x Milk Chocolate
Famous Japanese chef Hironobu Tsujiguchi made this snack mix that features milk chocolate coated pecans, sprinkled with cocoa powder for extra richness.
You can immediately taste the milk chocolate and it balances the pecan nutty-ness to give a pleasant taste.
The outside of the nut looked like they are covered in powdered cocoa powder and you’d get it all over your fingers and mouth – but it’s doesn’t do that. It just adds another layer of chocolatey-ness and really compliments the pecans – it gives a nice sweetness to an otherwise bland-ish tasting nut.
Dark chocolate is healthy and so are pecans – I can see how this snack can help you power through the day with an energy boost. The only bad side is that you only get a few in the bag!
#5 Ajigen Tsunati
Local to the Kagwa prefecture, Ajigen Tsunati or Ajigen tuna are 70% tuna and 0% preservatives or colorings. The tuna boasts some health benefits like being high in protein, iron, rich in fatty acids (DHA and EPA).
The simple seasoning used in these snacks makes the appeal to a wide range people in Japan, from kids to seniors.
Well, I bet you wouldn’t be surprised if I said the Tuna chips were FISHY! With 70% tuna, you could probably have guessed it lol.
The chips are crispy, the ocean fishy taste is very much strong. If you love sea food, you have to try these! If you don’t love sea food, they might not be the one for you. But don’t worry….these next snacks are guaranteed winners for everyone.
#6 Strawberry Chocolate Marshmallow
This snack alone is worth buying this special Valentines WOWBOX.
From the town of Fukuoka, confectioners Ishimura have been making treats like these for generations and only use local ingredients in all their creations.
These are strawberry infused marshmallows with a rich cacao chocolate center.
Japan produces a strawberry nicknamed the killer strawberry due to the crazy juicy strawberry’s they farm. You can tell they used them in this snack!
They infused the marshmallow by kneading in freeze dried strawberries so it’s completely incorporated, but also leave in some chunks of strawberry for texture.
They taste amazing. The chocolate is so rich and cocoa-y and the strawberry tastes really natural and isn’t masked by artificial sweetness.
You need to try these! Get this WOWBOX now here.
#7 Feve Fava Bean x Butter Chicken Curry
From the Tokyo prefecture, these are a snack mix of thick sliced potatoes seasoned with a butter chicken curry blend and chewy fava beans that are rich in B2.
B2 is a beauty vitamin that helps protect hair, skin, reduces inflammation and even helps heal wounds faster.
Bet you didn’t think a small bag of sliced potatoes and fava beans could do that huh?
What does it taste like?
Wow, super savory curry flavors immediately hit your tongue. Spices upon spices upon more spices – not spicy – just super well seasoned with a touch of salt.
The potato chips and fava bean are all flavored the same, but the differing textures – chewy fava bean and crispy potato – make these tasty to grab a few and snack on.
I’ve reviewed a few WOWBOX’s from Japan and this is the first snack that has had a curry aroma. I didn’t really expect that from Japan, not a flavor I’d associate with the country…but today I learned differently!
Roundup
We really enjoyed these snacks from WOWBOX.
There’s whole range of flavors – sweet, salty, savory and sour….and there’s a whole range of textures – smooth marshmallow, crispy burdock chips, chewy broad beans and chunky pineapple chocolate!
You’re buying an adventure for your taste buds in a box. Not only are the flavor combinations different, but the ingredients are sourced from completely different places.
It makes for an experience that really can’t be replicated, you just have to try it for yourself.
There are plenty of snacks included, so you’ll be able to have your whole family or friends share the adventure experience.
If you’ve ever wondered what Japanese culture tastes like, what snacks they eat on a daily basis, that are high quality, locally sourced and genuine, WOWBOX is the place to go. I was impressed by the high quality of the snacks – you know how sometimes chocolate has a weird artificial sweetness or even a bitterness? These chocolates are deep, rich, soul touching chocolates.
I’ve also noticed that the Japanese snacks really are heavily focused on local, natural ingredients. You can literally taste the difference with each bite.
This box is on sale at $52 (regularly $60). Shipping is free to most countries (it’s free to the USA) and they ship super fast with DHL Worldwide Express.
Seriously though those strawberry marshmallow chocolate things are worth the $52 alone haha. YUM.
Get your box from WOWBOX here!
