Tea Time with Sakuraco

I’m not a subscription box person, but when Sakuraco reached out to me with a demo offer, I thought I’d give it a try. Sakuraco is a company that mails monthly subscription boxes stuffed (and I do mean stuffed!) with goodies from Japan. The box I received was designed for a tea for two.

I was pleased to see my favorite sencha tea inside. I prefer sencha sourced from Shizuoka Prefecture over all the other types of sencha available. It has a wonderfully light, faintly evergreen flavor. It reminds me of walking through the woods during a gentle rain. Beyond the tea, I found goodies themed around Tokyo Matsuri along with a nicely-produced booklet explaining the festival and where the products come from. The booklet explains why each item was included. For example, kaminari ginger okoshi’s description:

Kaminari-okoshi, named after Asakusa Kaminarimon, is a classic sweet that has been around since the Edo period as a lucky charm for moving house. The rice puff contains ginger, sesame, and peanuts, with just a touch of sweetness. It’s the perfect snack to pair with tea, either fro a moment to yourself or with guests.

And it was quite good. Most of the sweets aren’t sweet by American standards. They are more akin to British tea-sweets like scones. However, I quite enjoy sweets like that with tea or coffee. Roppo manju, or a sweet made from azuki red bean, was especially good paired with the sencha.

The booklet features two maker highlights along with their products: Kobayashi Seika and Amezaiku Yoshihara. The features explain their companies and their approaching to making the products. Amezaiku’s hard candy was excellent, and I am going to have to find an online shop that sells it. I worried his Ginger Cinnamon candy would be harsh, but instead it was pleasant and not hot at all as ginger and cinnamon can sometimes be. Kobayashi Seika’s Mentaiko Beans were okay. I don’t like spicy things, and these were slightly spicy. The flavor would be better without that spice.

Most of the box was a winner and offered a chance for me to try foods I hadn’t tried before, such as melonpan and utage jelly. My favorites were the tiramisu baumkuchen, roppo manju, and the castella bites. But I also felt sick on a few other items, as I surmised I would.

I have a sensitive digestive system where I can’t eat fatty, fried, or high-protein foods. Red meat, pork, and overeating fish or chicken makes me sick. I’m also highly allergic to alcohol, to the point where just smelling it will trigger migraines. I can also break out in hives. So I can’t go anywhere that serves it. Unfortunately the petit Kabuki crackers and the shrimp & sesame age mochi triggered my guts. Both are fried. That’s always a risk I take when I try something new or eat out somewhere. As I write this, my guts are still not happy about the Kabuki crackers despite eating them yesterday. It takes about 3 days for my system to settle when triggered. So if you have sensitivities like me, be careful to read the item descriptions before you try them! Sakuraco includes allergy information for each item; it’s a nice touch, although perhaps “fried” or “fatty” should be added to the list for people like me! But I knew I was playing Russian roulette with my guts when I tried the items.

Sakuraco’s subscription box is a great treat. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. It arrived within three days of receiving their tracking number email: impressive! The booklet offers an interesting read and nice insights to each of the items in the box. The subscription service isn’t cheap at $37.50 for a single month. However, you are getting items you can’t easily find outside of Japan and can enjoy a curated taste adventure at home. Think of it as the cost of a good lunch for two, at least where I live. It would be a great gift for someone who likes tea or Japan. The box also includes different plates, cups, and other dinnerware each month. Overall, the presentation is classy and feels premium. The box was well packed as you can see from my unboxing video below. Yep, I decided to try my hand at making a (terrible) unboxing video. I borrowed the library’s document camera, which isn’t designed to make a recording. In any case, the video is below. I quite enjoyed the box outside of trying those 2 items that I knew would trigger my system. Of all the items, the tea is my highest-rated item with the ginger cinnamon hard candy a close second and the tiramisu coming in a close third. If you want something different from the usual, consider giving one of Sakuraco’s boxes a try. It would make for a fun tea-date.