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Snackoo — For the Adventurous Snacker

The October Snackoo box.

 

If you have a global palate and are a serious snacker, then Snackoo is for you.

The Hayward start-up curates cookies, chips, candies, and other noshes from around the world, and sends out an assortment in subscription boxes.

It was founded by Baylor Wei, who has a master’s of science degree from Stanford University. Wei hit on the idea for the company after discovering favorite new snacks abroad, only to be disappointed when they weren’t available in the States.

Snackoo sources from seven countries in Asia right now, but has plans to expand geographically in the future.

I had a chance to sample the October box. It’s a true treasure trove — a box packed with about 20 mini sweet and savory snacks from Asia. Almost all of them were new to me.

Would you believe this snack box even included this creamy flan-like dessert?

The packaging for the most part is not in English. So, it’s helpful that Snackoo includes a note outlining what the box contains. The company also takes pains to translate the ingredients of each product, in case any buyers have allergies or an ingredient intolerance. That info for each product can be found on Snackoo’s web site.

Among the goodies inside: Yoshimi Sapporo Shrimp Curry Crackers from Japan, which have a potent dried shrimp and curry flavor; Japanese-Style Barbecue Chips from Japan, which are very crunchy, salty and full of umami; Calbee “Potato Farm Green Bean Potato Chips from Japan, which look like regular potato chips but taste uncannily of edamame; and Gilco Giant Pretz Hokkaido Butter Flavor (limited edition from Japan), which look like Italian bread sticks and are the unsweetened version of Pocky. They are crisp, buttery, salty and just a little sweet.

UHA Gummy are apparently the most popular gummy candies in Japan. This one was peach flavored, and it is really fruity tasting, almost like peach nectar. The texture isn’t as chewy as gummi bears, but more gelatin-like.

Glico Giant Pretz, UHA Gummy, Calbee “Potato Farm” Green Bean Potato Chips, and Every Burger Chocolate Cookies.

Burger-shaped cookies — how cute are these?

The Kobe Pudding at first made me worried it was marbled beef pudding. But it’s actually a Japanese product from Kobe that is kind of like flan. This one was Remy Martin flavored. It came with a separate packet of caramel sauce to drizzle on, too. The shelf-stable flan was plenty creamy, and tasted of vanilla, with the sauce having a nice deeply burnt sugar taste. I’m not sure I detected the cognac necessarily, but it was a surprisingly delicious treat. You could unmold it and serve it on a plate, and people would think you slaved in the kitchen to make it.

The Every Burger Chocolate Cookies from Japan are just plain cute. They’re teeny chocolate sandwich cookies made to look like burgers.

A one-time box delivery is $25. The price goes down to $23 per box if you prepay in advance for three deliveries, and down to $20 per box if you prepay for six deliveries.

If you find yourself addicted to one of the items, you can also order more of it on the Snackoo site. Just don’t blame me if it spoils your appetite for regular meals.