Laila's donated snack box

A good friend of mine, Laila, had been reading my previous posts on the SnackSurprise snack boxes we've been getting for the last few months and kindly offered my good lady and I a personal selection of Asian snacks for us to try. Last week, the box arrived, and as you can see, it's quite a selection.

A re-purposed shoe box of wonders.

The accompanying note did say that these were snacks that she had tried and she hoped that among them, there would be some we would enjoy. We shall see.

Prawn, brings the cat to the yard.

We decided to go savoury first with the Oishi Prawn Crackers. Upon opening the packet, our nostrils were assaulted by the most overpowering prawn smell I have ever experienced. So overpowering that the cat wandered in from the next room to have a sniff. As for the taste, well, they're crunchy snacks but the flavour is actually quite delicate, which means if you wanted to, you could have quite a few of these without destroying your taste buds. Quite nice then.

SPOILER ALERT: Just. Fucking. No.

Next was a grilled seaweed snack. These are very thin slices of grilled seaweed and promised a fresh and clean taste. Bollocks, dear reader, complete and utter bollocks. The texture is weird, the saltiness reminded me straight away of those Swedish droppings from last month and the aftertaste? Gentle Jesus wept, even after spitting the remnants out and glugging some water, it didn't want to leave. Bloody awful!

Should be called Oreganoz...

Pretz pizza sticks promised a lot, with the tag line "Hello, me time". To be fair, they deliver on the crunchy stick side and if you like Oregano, then you'll love these. The herb overpowers most of the cheese and tomato flavour you might expect. A thin breadstick then and one that is ok, but their "me time" is not worth my time.

Actually bloody lovely!

Pocky next, offering a cookies and cream taste in a stick. And you know what, they deliver in spades. With the right amount of chocolate and an extremely creamy taste, these were the best so far. Simple but delivers what's on the box.

Arse biscuits?

Now, Chocolate Collon (Stop sniggering! Really, stop it! I'll not have the tone lowered just yet!). These are a small tube snack that look like a brand of dog biscuits. The hard outer shell surrounds a soft chocolate filling. The shell is crunchy and the filling is quite sweet, though a bit gritty and nutty tasting. Not exactly pleasant. If this is the true "Collon Chocolate Flavour", then it's a pass from us. (Right, get out! Absolute filth, you lot are!).

Coconut antacids.

The Boro Coconut Cookies are like little meringues with a decent hit of coconut. They're ok to begin with but are very powdery, making it feel like I had chewed an antacid tablet by mistake. A couple of these and a mouthful of water and it makes a cloying paste reminiscent of powdered toothpaste. Another no-no.

Look iffy, taste nice - also tiny.

The first of three mini-Kit-Kats now, and something that sounded quite nice: Yuzu Matcha flavour. These, as you can see, are quite green but very, very tasty. There is a lovely, fresh lemon hit that works really well. Some might think these quite sweet, but for the small portion size, they are spot on. 

Beelzebub turd sweets.

Haw Flakes now, where we have little sugar flakes (discs) that taste of absolutely nothing when you first bite into them. Oh, there's sugar, but not much else. Then you get the aftertaste. It's hawthorn. In a sugar disc form. Whoever decided to make these foul droppings from Satan's ring piece needs a stern talking to. It took a good ten minutes to clear our palettes after these. 

Surprisingly nice.

The Nin Jian Herbal Candy Super Mint set alarm bells ringing as soon as we picked up the packet. Oh, the packaging looks nice, but the description aroused suspicion. We shouldn't have been so worried. These have an initially strong mint flavour (think Foxes Glacier Mints) which gives way to a fruity taste - maybe cherry but not entirely sure. It works, and the sweet itself is quite refreshing. We were wrong to pre-judge here.

Another nice sweet - we're on a roll here...

Kopiko Cappuccino sweets are just brilliant. A mix of Werther's Original and strong coffee, they're creamy, rich and delicious. Long-lasting too, we both enjoyed these and can heartily recommend them.

The jelly roll that ended to roll of nice snacks.

Yes, this is a jelly straw. Yes, it's got a weak apple flavour, almost to the point of blandness. And yes, it jizzed all over my hand when I tried to open it. Before the jizzing, I wasn't impressed. Afterwards, even less so.

Pink and bland - like school blancmange.

Another Kit-Kat bar, this time Sakura Mochi, with very pink chocolate. The flavour is very subtle and to be honest, neither my good lady nor I could nail down what that flavour actually was. Pleasant enough, but not something to really to enthuse about, so yeah...

Fuck's Sake! Not good.

Final Kit-Kat and it's Sakura Japanese Sake flavour. Where as the previous Kit-Kat was neither "nowt nor summat", this one delivers a big, heft punch of sake that is actually quite unpleasant. It tastes like you've had one of those chocolate liqueurs that sell at Christmas time, but it's overly strong and the bar itself has a foisty smell. Not one for us.

Some say this is nice. They are wrong.

The final item is the one that really is what it says on the box: Chrysanthemum Tea. If you're not like me, then you may enjoy this. If you are like me and don't like flowery teas then this cold carton of flowery piss will not be to your taste. Foul, disgusting and just plain horrible. You are entitled to a different opinion, so I will not offend thee with the facts. :-)

So there you have it, a rather tongue in cheek walk through an Asian snack box. Thank you, Laila, for the experience, and some of those snacks were "experiences". Some good, some bad, there are a few we'll keep a look out for in future and a handful we shall definitely not. The fun, as always, is with the trying out.