Time to take a break from the world of beauty and take a look at the world of candy and snacks; specifically Japanese candy & snacks. Freedom Japanese Market kindly and very generously sent me another one of their boxes to review, their Fukubukuro box.
Freedom Japanese Market is a family business run by Ken, Sanae and their two children who love to do the official taste testing and quality control and I love that; it feels a lot more personal when you know it’s run by a family. They’re at the top of my list for their customer service; they are just so friendly and helpful
This is a box for the more adventurous person because you don’t get any information about what the snacks & candy are inside this box. It’s all for you to discover for yourself but that’s part of the fun, right?
As with their monthly box, the Fukubukuro box was jam-packed with not an ounce of space left. You could tell it had been packed extremely carefully. Everything was in perfect condition too. Oh, and not forgetting there were also 3 Origami pieces too – you will notice the 2 snails in the pictures! I had to use them. 😀
I did review their monthly subscription not too long ago, so I did get a few things in the Fukubukuro box that I had previously received in the monthly box.
Cream Collon
These little Cream Collon are tasty little chocolate cookies, with a chocolate cream filling. They were really nice. There were 2 boxes of these included, so plenty for everyone to share.
Dark chocolate Kit Kats
There were 2 dark chocolate Kit Kats. Dark chocolate and wafer; can’t go wrong with this combination.
Milk Flavoured Pocky
Some milk flavoured Pocky – I know they’re milk because these were in the monthly box lol Is that cheating? 😛
Watermelon Gum
This was also in the monthly box and is a soft chewy watermelon gum. Full of flavour.
Country Ma’am cookies
These Country Ma’am cookies are cute little vanilla cookies. There were 2 of these in the box.
BBQ Breadsticks?
I’m not quite sure what flavour these were, myself and 2 of my kids thought they tasted like BBQ. I am not a fan of BBQ at all but I know lots of people are. These were kind of like little thin breadsticks. I liked the texture and crunch, just not the flavour but that’s just me.
Umaibo
I also got 4 different flavours of Umaibo in the box. Two of them I know were Corn Potage because of receiving them previously. I honestly am not sure what the other two were, I think the one was possibly something to do with octopus, as it had a kind of fishy taste.
Mashuro
I know this is a Mashuro. Fluffy marshmallow as I have received it before. I just can’t do marshmallows though, the texture always makes me cringe, I’m the same with the texture of bananas lol My kids assured me this was tasty though.
Maken Gummi
Also included was this Maken Gummi, this one was an energy drink flavoured one; they are soft and chewy and packed with flavour.
Aerial
These Aerial are tasty cheesy corn snacks. They had a very light, crispy texture. It was quite a large bag too which is great.
Hana-suna
Hana-suna were also another corn snack in the shape of flowers. I actually couldn’t discern any flavour with these. They had a nice, crispy texture and just a very, very mild flavour of something, it just wasn’t strong enough to recognise. I’d even say that they just tasted salty.
I think very young kids/toddlers would like these though due to them being so mild in flavour.
More savoury snacks in the shape of these tiny little corn puffs. They were quite salty and ideal portion size.
This was another little marshmallow snack. My son demolished this in one mouthful; he seemed to like it!
Premium Curry Katsu Snack
Once again this Premium Curry Katsu was just not to our tastes. Nothing wrong with the snack itself. It’s a curry corn snack and has a lot of flavour to it.
Rice Cracker
I have no idea what flavour this snack was lol It really looks like a flattened potato croquette, doesn’t it? It’s actually a rice cracker flavoured like a croquette.
Unchoko
I got another cute little Unchoko in the shape of a cute tiger this time. These contain little tasty balls of grape chocolate. They have a crispy outer shell and chocolate inside. I’ll also point out again that the name of this chocolate is a play on words between ‘chocolate’ and ‘poop’ lol
Carrot shaped and fun, containing tiny, sweet puffs of rice. Think Sugar Puffs and you’ll be more or less spot on.
Light, salty and crispy potato snacks shaped like French Fries.
Tezukuri Ramune Candy Kit
This Tezukuri Ramune candy kit has everything you need to make your own candy. I’ve still to make one of these kits up. I must get round to doing it! Look at those adorable animal shapes that the moulds are in.
Curl
Lastly, there was another bag of Curl. These are very cheesy, crispy and light corn snacks. You can see more of what they look like in my previous review here.
Overall Thoughts
This is a great box full of tasty savoury snacks and sweet candy treats. It has twice as many snacks as their regular subscription box and I like the fun aspect that you have no idea what you are trying until you pop it in your mouth and taste it. It’s a great size to share with several friends or ideal for families too.
There is quite a nice balance between the amount of savoury & sweet snacks. I also like that you don’t get loads of really tiny bite-size pieces. It’s mostly full-sized items that you can share and individual portions.
Everything arrives well packed and very fresh. If you do subscribe to the monthly subscription then you may get some snacks that are repeated in this box.
Often included are seasonal and/or limited edition snacks. So you might not get the exact selection that I reviewed but it will be of equal amounts and value.
Due to not getting an information card with this box, I do suggest that anyone with any allergies or special dietary requirements should go for the regular box instead.
The Fukubukuro box is usually offered to Freedom Japanese Freedom Fan Club (newsletter) members about once every couple of months. It is also available on Amazon.
All of our boxes are curated with well over a pound of real Japanese snacks and candies. These snacks are delivered directly from our offices in Japan, directly to your front door, and will never see the inside of a container ship. Each box contains a mix of full size and single serving snacks, and we include many seasonal snacks which are not sold outside of Japan. Packages also include a hand-made, seasonal origami. Note: Contents of the box will change with the season and availability, but the quantity, quality and selection will always remain constant. – Freedom Japanese Market Amazon Store
Where to Buy?
Sadly Freedom Japanese Market has now closed. If you’re looking for a Japanese Subscription box, click here
