Tokyo Treat Review- Positive

So today I am doing a post which is not really lolita related and I do apologise if this post is not something that my followers are particularly interested in seeing. I am still sat in that metaphorical fig tree, trying to figure out what to do. I promise I have some more Japanese fashion related content coming soon. I have a Taobao order and a Japan haul coming in the post, plus I have a few ideas for other posts as well. But if you are a fan of Japanese food and snacks, then today you are in luck!

I have been wanting to order one of these monthly snack subscription boxes for a while now. I have a bit of a passion for food, especially sweets and food that looks cute. There are so many options out there, especially for Japanese candy, but in the end I decided to go for Tokyo Treat. I based this decision on a few things. Firstly, in comparison to some other similar boxes, it feels as though you get more content in the Tokyo Treat box. Tokyo Treat also offer free shipping worldwide. If you go for the larger sized boxes you are also guaranteed to get a soda, a DIY candy kit and a gachapon. Also, if you go on their Facebook page you can see what the monthly theme is going to be and some of the contents. That helped me to make a more informed decision about whether I wanted to get that particular month's box. The good thing about Tokyo Treat is that you can unsubscribe at any time and it is really easy to do so. So if you wanted, you can just sign up for one box and then cancel right away if you only wanted to get that one box. Just be aware that you will need to cancel before the payments for next month's box comes out, which should be some time near the end of the month. If you search their Facebook page, you will find that Tokyo Treat also do a lot of discount vouchers, so it is worth having a look and figuring out which deal works out the best for you. Subscribers also get entered in to a competition to win a free 'Lucky Treat' each month and there are also competitions to win further prizes.

There are a couple of points I feel I should mention. Obviously with a lot of these boxes the contents are not worth the price you pay for them. You have to weigh up how much you are getting and how much of it is cheap stuff that doesn't cost many yen. The other thing to consider is how much it would cost you if you didn't live in Japan, but wanted to buy these sweets from a specialist sweet store. There are stores out there that offer snacks from various countries, but a lot of the time you get hit with high prices because the store has to pay to import them. I know that if I were to buy my box contents from one of these stores it would have cost me a lot more money. Yes, you don't get to choose what is in the box, but that is part of the risk. But out of everything I received in my box, I was very pleased to discover there was only one thing I didn't like. I also tried things that I would have otherwise avoided like the plague. I would have never thought about trying clam soup flavoured crisps, but it turns out I actually quite like them! So that was a bit of an eye-opening experience. I can't wait to see what surprises await me in the March box. At the moment Tokyo Treat do not guarantee that their boxes will be vegetarian friendly. I see a lot of people commenting about this. I would suggest keeping up the comments and then maybe they will consider doing one. Also, if you have a food allergy, that would be another reason to avoid getting these boxes.

So, on to my box! I got an email as soon as the box was dispatched. Tokyo Treat are very responsive on their Facebook page and I feel it would be really easy to get in contact with them if there was a problem. They do say that if your box does not arrive by the end of the month to contact them on Facebook. Thankfully, my box turned up okay, but I do have some faith that Tokyo Treat would be able to send out a replacement box if necessary. 

I was told to expect my box any time between the 20th and 28th of February. Obviously my box arrived well before those dates. It took just over a week from getting my dispatch email for my box to arrive. There were a few dents in the box, but it was generally well packaged.

The box was absolutely stuffed with products, so there wasn't much room for extra packaging. I was a bit worried that the soda bottle would crush stuff like the crisps but actually, the box was so full that there was no way that stuff was going to be rolling around inside the box. The more fragile items, such as the crisps, were sensibly packed right at the top.

You get given a handy magazine which goes in to depth about everything you get in the box. It is always nice to know what you are eating beforehand! The magazine also had information about Japanese culture surrounding the snacks. So because this was a Valentines themed box, there was a small piece written about 'obligation chocolate' and some of the traditional customs around this time of year. As this was a Valentines box, a lot of the items were pink! There were also some instructions in English on how to use the DIY candy kit. This time around, the DIY kit was a strawberry mousse with stencil, which you have to microwave. I haven't gotten around to making it yet, but I did notice I am going to need to do a bit of converting with the microwave cooking times. It only tells you how long to cook it for 500W microwaves. Apart from needing to alter the cooking time, the instructions are super easy to follow to the point where it is almost patronising. You would struggle to get it wrong because Tokyo Treat are super careful about making their points crystal clear.

This month's gachapon was an Amuse lucky charm. I was hoping to get one of the bird designs, but out of the cat designs I think I got the cutest one!

I wont go in to details about every single snack, because we will be here all day. If this is something that people are interested in, I may consider doing videos of James and I trying the snacks, but I have no plans to do this at the moment and it wont be on this blog if I do decide to give this a go. I decided to share my favourite snack from this box though. These are the Mini Peach Ramune candy, which taste of peach soda. They were so refreshing and left me wanting more. The can style packaging with the ring-pull was cute too. I would definitely buy these again! 

So after this first box, I have decided that I am going to remain subscribed for a while. March's box is going to be sakura and matcha themed, and I am really excited to see what they do with this theme. The good thing is, there is plenty of time to cancel my subscription if I didn't like a theme, because Tokyo Treat usually announce their theme long before the payment comes out. To tell the truth, I have always been a bit wary of these monthly surprise boxes, but this has turned out to be a very positive experience. I also really love surprises, so this is definitely my sort of thing!