Gypsy Trading Company Snacks XL Snack Treasure Box Review and Coupon Code

Gyspy Trading Company Snacks is a new subscription box company that sends you international snacks each month.  They are based in the US and currently ship only to the continental USA.  They generously provided me with a box for review and a coupon code for new subscribers!  This review is for the XL Snack Treasure Box which is the larger box.

Currently, GTCS is specializing in snacks from the East but will be including goodies from Central and South America soon.  My box arrived in a flat rate USPS Priority Mail medium box.  It was pretty banged up but everything made it safely.  There is no information card but you can see a list of potential snacks on their website with the Snack Index.  They have a LOT of stuff.  If you like international snacks, you’ll be amazed.

The Cost: $23/month non-recurring or $32/month non-recurring for the XL box ~ Includes shipping of $3.  Lower for longer subscriptions and shipping is free after the first month.

What You Get: Hand selected assortment of chips, candies, cookies and drinks, which varies every month. The regular Snack Treasure Chest contains 8-12 items and a drink, and the XL Snack Treasure Chest contains 15-20 items including 2 drinks.
I’m starting with the dessert and snack cake type things.  The box had five kinds of dessert snacks and we tried most of them already.  I didn’t really care for any of them but my husband is more adventurous than I am and not only tried them all but ate them all as well.

Lotte Happy Promises Custard Cake–  Lotte is a Korean snack company and this is a vanilla cake with custard inside.  I hate custard (it’s a texture thing, I just can’t do it) but Walker ate this.

Lotte Choco Pie–  Ive tried these before and I think they’re a little bland.  It’s like a moonpie only not as sweet.  I like my desserts sweet…

Nabisco Oreo Soft Cookie– This is a soft Oreo cookie with a mooshy, raspberry cream in the middle. I liked the cookie part but not the cream (texture, again) and I’ve never seen these around here. These were made in Japan.

Shinsu Apple Cake– Sponge cake with apple jelly filling and cream center.  Again, texture.  Walker ate a bite.  He said it tasted like a plum flavored sponge (and I didn’t even tell him it was sponge cake!)

Tohato Cookie and Cream– This is the bright blue wrapper thing.  It had two thin chocolate cookies in it with a ‘cookies and cream’ coating.  This was probably the best thing out of this grouping.
Alright! On to the smaller sweets of chocolatey type.  Sort of.  Actually I didn’t know what any of these were.  It’s hard to bite into something when you have no idea what it’s going to taste like.

Caplico Mini Obukuro– A Japanese wafer cone with a cream filled center.  It looks like an ice cream cone and is totally cute.

Purple Yam Cake– I should have known right away what this was.  It was purple.  However it took me a bite to realize it was made out of purple yam. Crispy flaky outside with a yam paste filling.  It’s from China and it’s not sweet.  It’s almost salty but not.  I did not like it.

Otona Look Ichigo– This is a chocolate square with what seems to be a freeze dried strawberry and a layer of crispy wafer.  This was really good and I wished there was more than one. 😀

Bake Chocolate Candies– I’m not sure what these are.  They look like fat tootsie rolls but seem to have a cakey outside and a truffley inside.  They taste pretty good, actually.

Hwa Yuan Potato Chips–  These are butter flavored.  They’re a little weird because they’re almost sweet but… not.  These were also tasty and have been eaten.

Taiwanese Pea Crackers– These are like Fritos but they’re made with Peas.  They’re garlic flavored and they are delicious! They grow on you really fast.  At first I wasn’t sure and then I didn’t want to share.  But I did.  Yeah.  They’re gone and this isn’t a tiny bag either.
Shih Chuan Plum Vinegar Drink– I’m afraid to try this because of the vinegar even though the description says it doesn’t taste like vinegar.  It’s a fun squishy packet of a drink and I think I’ll eventually overcome my trepidation to actually take a sip.

Passion Fruit Green Tea–  This is a Taiwanese drink and I’m sure it’s going to be good.  I just put it in the fridge to get cool.  I’m drinking my favorite gen-maicha right now but this passionfruit tea will be gun to try.
Just when you thought that was all there was… there’s more!  Candies, candies, candies.
There is Volcano Popping Candy in Cola which I ate first.  It tastes like cola syrup and pops like PopRocks.  Then there are really, really tasty Fujiya Lemon Fizzy candies which I also ate and loved and sort of reminded me of Zots.  There’s also some Lotte Grape chewing gum that I didn’t eat and some Kasugai Grape Gummies that I also didn’t eat because I get headaches from fake grape flavoring.  Then theres two Milkita Strawberry Cream hard candies, a tiny ice cream cone shaped Japanese candy (which arrived in a wrapper, I just wanted you to see how cute it was without the plastic on it) and three Jin Jin jelly sticks.  The jelly sticks are strange and floppy, sort of like a cross between jello and gummy bears.
VERDICT: I’m still amazed at how much stuff was in this Gypsy Trading Company Snack Box. The collection of different types of snacks was excellent.  Not only were there desserts and candies but there were savory snacks like chips and two drinks!  I don’t know if I’ve ever gotten a drink in one of my international snack boxes before.  Granted this box is $30 and there should be a lot of stuff in it but I’m still impressed.  I may not love international snacks like some people but there’s something to be said for having a box of ultimate mystery snacks dropped at your door.
I tend to prefer savory snacks over desserty types but this box surprised me with some actually tasty candies.  I should say that I might be one of the pickiest eaters on earth and that I prefer my western candies and snacks because they’ve got more sugar and more salt (yum!).  In a XL box like this, you’ll get 15-20 items and this box had 27.  Not counting candies individually but in pairs, there are 20 products.  I wish the shipping was free or that the small candies were more numerous but that’s my only reservation.
If you would like to try a Gypsy Trading Company Snack Box, you can order a single, one month box and you won’t continue to be charged.  I like the option to just get one box without having to worry about cancelling.  If you order a longer subscription you only pay shipping on the first month which is really nice and definitely a money saver.
If you decide to sign up, make sure you use coupon code: 3offcode to get $3 off your first box.!
I think snack boxes like these make good gifts for adventurous eaters or college students.  Part of the fun of these is sharing them and groaning over what’s awful and fighting over what is good.  I don’t usually like everything but it’s always interesting to taste snacks from another part of the world.
I’ll be heading to Germany in a few months and one of the first things I’ll do is head to the supermarket and get the weirdest snacks I can find.  Sometimes you wonder how people can eat some of it but it’s still fun.