I used to tell people that dessert was my favourite meal of the day but with three hour classes that extend through lunch time I'd like to revise that statement and say that snack time is my new favourite meal of the day because it lasts pretty much all day long.
And the only thing better than snack time... is snack time with international goodies! I was sent a Taiwan Treat Boxto review, which has been helping me to step up my in-class snack game. Taiwan Treat is a monthly snack subscription box that aims to deliver authentic Taiwanese snacks, candies, treats, chips, ramen noodles, coffees and teas from Taiwan to your front door.
Month-to-month the original box (10" x 10" x 3") is $24.99/mo and the small box (9.5" x 6.5" x 2.75") is $14.99 /mo. Prepay for 3 or 6 months and you'll get a couple dollars off either kind of box. You can skip a month or cancel at any time.
I received the small box, which contained 4 single-serving packets of tea, 10 sweet snacks and 5 salty snacks and 1 packet of ramen. That's 20 individual servings of food/drink total. There were also a few extras like a Taiwan Treat sticker, a personalized note and an insert with a recipe for Taiwanese Noodle Soup by featured chef of the month Cici Li.
First up is Tea! There's Taiwan black tea and Bilochun, as well as two packs of Taiwan Gao Shan Cha. I'm not a tea person, so I'll likely be passing these on to my roommates who will appreciate it more.
Black Sesame Candy. I've had this treat before. It's odd in that it's crunchy and chewy at the same time, kind of like a sesame seed nougat of sorts. It's pretty mild flavoured - not too sweet and perhaps even a little salty.
Brown Sugar Sweet Potato. I love sweet potatoes. I love sugar. What a heavenly combination. It's super chewy and gummy textured which is strange if you're not used to it. It's like dried mango except flavoured like a sweet potato! Someone tell me where I can find these.
Puff Pastry Baked Pastry. This was one of my favourites of the box. In a nutshell, it's white chocolate covering a flaky pastry with a hollow inside. It's not quite as amazing as the satisfaction of a very flaky fresh croissant but it's sweet and decadent. I know I'm getting repetitive but .. WHERE CAN I BUY THESE?
Truly Chocolate Dipped Confection. I wasn't really sure what this was but I think it's a piece of dried sweet potato dipped in chocolate. If you couldn't tell how I am about sweet potatoes from above, then I'll remind you that sweet potatoes are my greatest love. Also, anything dipped in chocolate sounds good to me. While I didn't enjoy this as much as the Brown Sugar Sweet Potato, If you put this in front of my face, I would definitely eat it.
There were two candies in the box. The Cow Candy in brown and pink is one of those ones that are hard at first but as they warm up in your mouth, they become soft and chewy. Brown was chocolate and pink was strawberry. The Boy Candy is something that I've had before but by a different brand. It's a hard candy that tastes a little milky... maybe like a White Rabbit candy if you've had those before?
Crunchoco. This reminded me of something I used to eat as a child. It's like a bunch of chocolate cornflake cereal and almond slivers moulded together in a puck. Even though it was a sweet snack, I didn't find it to be overly so like many North American snacks.
Silang Green Onion Thin Crackers. I've had these before and I can get them at my local grocery store. They taste like Ritz crackers with a hint of green onion.
Prince Noodles. I believe these are ramen noodle bits mixed with seaweed seasoning. I found these to be too salty but the crunch made it satisfying to munch on.
Black Rice Seaweed Snacks. Seaweed is one of my all time favourite low-cal snacks. I also like to mix it with rice and eggs for a quick meal. Rather than just being a plain sheet of seaweed, this snack puts bits of popped black rice between two sheets for extra sweetness and crunch. I need more of this in my life.
I ate the above snacks before I could even photograph them, so I'll attempt to describe them as best I can. First was a Yam Cake, Surprisingly, this wasn't one of my favourite snacks (despite my love for sweet potatoes). It was like bits of yam-flavoured crackers packed into a rice crispy shape, but not with marshmallows, so it fell a part easily and was messy to eat. Next was a Bin Bin Rice Cracker pack. Bin Bin Rice Crackers are lightweight, peanut shaped, lightly fish flavoured cracker. These were a childhood favourite of mine and I pick them up almost every time at I'm at the Chinese grocery store.
Mom's Dry Noodle. Other than the tea, this is the only thing that I haven't tried yet. According to the Ramen Rater, Mom's Dry Noodles are some of the best from Taiwan. There are a variety of flavours but I can't tell which one this is from the packaging. Hopefully it will be a pleasant surprise!
Overall, I'm obsessed with this box. Other than the ramen and tea, I went through it in less than a couple days. In general, I think a pamphlet with the English names for all these snacks would be nice to have so that if I'm ever in a grocery store I attempt to find them. An ingredients list would also be helpful, especially for those with allergies! Oh, and I'd really, really appreciate something that tells me where to buy all the snacks that I enjoyed from the box. Because some of these Taiwanese Snacks (i.e. the Puff Pastry, the Sweet Potato, the Ramen and the Seaweed/Black Rice snacks) need to make regular appearances during my snack times!
Have you tried any of these Taiwanese snacks?
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