Japan Crate Subscription Box Review + Coupon– December 2016

Japan Crate is a monthly subscription box that sends candy and snacks from Japan. The box aims to "recreate the excitement of exploring Japan through fun candy and everything kawaii," and the assortment is handpicked straight from Japan.

There are 3 crate sizes to choose from: Mini ($12/month), Original ($25/month), and Premium ($30/month).

This box was sent to us at no cost for review. (Check out the review process post  to learn more about how we review boxes.)

This review is of the Premium, $30 a month, crate. 

The Subscription Box: Japan Crate

The Cost: $12 a month for the Mini crate, $25 a month for the Original crate, $30 a month for the Premium crate. Free shipping to the US.

The Products: Candy and snacks from Japan!

Ships to: Internationally with exceptions found here.

Check out all of our Japan Crate reviews and the Food Subscription Box Directory!

Keep Track of all Your Subscriptions: Add Japan Crate to your subscription list or wishlist!

Each box comes with a "manga-zine" that details the included snacks along with information on Japanese food and culture.

Sakuranbo No Uta

This hard candy is supposed to taste reminiscent of cherry pie and whipped cream. I don't really taste it, but it's still really good!

Umai Wa Vegetable Salad Flavor

This is a giant bag of puffy corn chips flavored to taste like garden salad and dressing. Honestly, it tastes nothing like any salad I've ever had! I get a peppery, savory flavor that tastes more like meat than veggies.

Animal Lesson Choco

These are crunchy chocolate cream-filled biscuits with animal faces and names printed on top. The biscuits smell strange, almost like chemicals or preservatives, so that turned me off a little. However, they taste almost exactly like Hello Panda cookies!

Yakimo Yokan

Yokan is a traditional Japanese dessert made from bean paste, agar, and sugar. It tastes like thick, dense jelly. This one is roasted sweet potato flavored.

Japan Crate suggests chilling it in the fridge and slicing it into thin pieces for a more authentic snacking experience, so I did just that. The yokan really does taste like sweet potato! Even the consistency is similar.

Harvest Biscuit Matcha Flavor

These are thin, matcha flavored tea biscuits. The package contains eight packs of four biscuits!

Each biscuit is lightly coated in sugar. I like to eat these straight out of the bag but they also complement tea and coffee.

Tsundermon Gum

These are lemon-flavored gumballs that taste sour at first but slowly turn sweet the longer you chew. I was first introduced to this gum in the October Kawaii & Beauty WOWBOX. I'm not a big fan of gum in subscription boxes but this was definitely one of the tastier types.

Morokoshi Wa Ta Ro

These are crispy, tubular corn puffs that are lightly salted. They don't have much flavor, in my opinion, but I liked them enough to empty the small bag in under a minute.

Grapefruit & Orange Nodo Ame

These are grapefruit and orange-flavored hard candies that contain plenty of Vitamin C per ball. The sweet and sour taste is pretty addicting! The smell reminds me of the Altoids Sours candies that I use to eat all the time before they were discontinued.

Anpanman Pero Pero Chocolate

This is a chocolate lollipop in the shape of a character from Anpanman, one of Japanese children's long-time favorite superhero shows. The lollipop has milk, white, and strawberry-flavored chocolate all in one!

Kinako Mochi Matcha DIY Kit - Value $1.28

The booklet lists a different DIY kit from what I actually received. Instead of the Magic Slime DIY, I got the Kinako Mochi Matcha DIY, which is a kit I first discovered in the August 2016 The CuteBox.

The kit is very easy to make! It includes almost everything you need to make mochi and mochi dipping sauces.

All you need is a dash of water to soften up the mochi pellets. They soften up almost instantly. Then, simply swirl the mochi into chocolate sauce and sweet matcha powder, and enjoy!

Double Sparkling Yuzu & Lemon Soda

This is a yuzu and lemon flavored beverage that tastes like a more citrusy version of Sprite! My boyfriend tried some and wasn't a big fan, but I found the zesty flavors unique and refreshing.

Caplico Mini

I have tried versions of these before and loved all of them. This is an ice cream cone inspired chocolate snack, complete with a cake cone exterior. Three flavors (Vanilla, Chocolate, and Strawberry) were sent out and I received the Chocolate one. The filling is made of puffy, airy chocolate that melts in your mouth. While it doesn't taste like real ice cream it definitely has its own charms.

Kakushi Ume-Dama

Ume is Japanese sour pickled plum, so you probably know where this is going. While sour candies usually have a sour coating with a sweet interior, this one is the opposite! The hard candy starts off sweet but slowly turns sour as you get to the center. According to Japan Crate, there is at least one super sour version of the candy in each bag, but all the candies look the same. There's definitely an element of risk and excitement involved in this snack.

Long Cola Gum

Here is the obligatory monthly cola-flavored item! This time it's cola-flavored gum. While the candy is very long, the flavor isn't. This one was a miss for me.

Pure Gummy Puchi Sankaku Lemon

These are sour lemon gummies. They have a sugar-coated exterior, which helps balance out the tanginess. I loved snacking on these and wished there were more than just five in the pouch!

Verdict: This box had a fun balance of sweet and sour snacks! There were only two savory snacks, but that's ok with me since I prefer sweets anyway. My favorite was the matcha-flavored biscuit! There was 15 snacks total, so the cost breakdown is $2 per snack, which is similar in value to past months' boxes.

I recently learned through social media that Japan Crate headquarters are moving to Tokyo. Starting in February, all crates will be fulfilled from Japan. This is exciting news because it means better snack curation! You can read more about it here.

What do you think of Japan Crate?