Treats is a monthly snack subscription full of snacks from around the world. You can expect to receive eclectic and interesting snacks that you’ve never sampled before (unless, of course, you’ve lived in the featured country recently)! The Standard Pack offers 4-5 snacks, while the Premium box offers 8-10. This, of course, is the Premium Box. It’s quick to enroll, and you’ll get your first box within a few days of when you subscribe.
The box is crowned with a beautiful postcard welcoming us to this month’s Treats destination.
The packaging is simple and elegant. Tissue paper keeps the contents a surprise until you are ready to immerse yourself in the destination country’s food culture.
DEAL: You can save 15% on your first month with coupon code HELLO15.
The box is filled to the top with goodies! This box had tons of cookies and bars – no hard or chewy candies this month.
This month, we welcome a box from Turkey! The back of the postcard introduces some of the uniqueness of the featured country and points out some of the items with distinctly local and traditional character.
There is also a handy info card that gives the name and maker of each treat, as well as a short description of each. The blurbs give you a sense of what to expect, but you’ll have to check each treat’s label (and possibly hire a translator) for more detailed info on ingredients and nutrition.
Everything in the box. The composition of each Treats collection depends on the local snacking culture, but there is usually a good mix of sweet and savory and individual and family packs. I was surprised to find no “Turkish Delights” or other chewy confections in this box. Everything in this month’s Treats is made by Ülker, Turkey’s largest food company. Ülker began in the 1940’s as a bakery, so it makes sense that cookies and crackers are their forte.
Ulker Clip Pizza Sticks: These crispy cracker sticks were really yummy. They have a nice snap, but they aren’t really hard, and they got the pizza flavor dead-on without overdoing the salt.
Ulker Cizi Cracker With Cheese: Though they look a bit like an over-baked Townhouse cracker, these have a nice mild cheese flavor. Less aggressive that a Cheez-it, Cizi blends buttery and cheesy flavors into a pleasant snack cracker that can stand on its own.
Ulker Hanimeller Cookies: Bits of hazelnut are littered throughout these crunchy cookies, just not of the dimensions shown on the label. They have a nice flavor (like a less buttery Pecan Sandy), and a texture that falls somewhere between shortbread and Nilla Wafers.
Ulker Biskrem Biscuits: These little cookies have a benign, crunchy sell that surrounds a rich chocolate creme center. The chocolate is very dark and thick, with a good deal of cocoa flavor. They remind me of overgrown Hello Panda biscuits (from Meiji).
Ulker Halley Biscuit: This is similar in construction to a dipped moon pie, but not as indulgent. The center is a marshmallow-type vanilla creme, sandwiched between rather dull and crumbly cracker-like cookies, all encased in a very thin chocolatey coating. This was OK, but it was a bit disappointing only because it looks like a mini cake from the wrapper, when its more of a dipped cracker sandwich.
Ulker Cocoa Tea Biscuit: This unique take of a tea biscuit has the right texture for the job, but it adds a twist on the flavor. This variety is flavored with cocoa, but it also has a strong, graham-cracker flavor to it. I think these would be fun to use for making peanut butter sandwiches or fancy S’Mores.
Ulker Ikram Biscuit: Little sandwich cookies. The cookie itself is more traditional than the tea biscuit, not having the surprising graham flavor. Inside is a chocolate creme.
Ulker Hobby Chocolate Bar: The info card omitted a bit about this tiny chocolate bar. It does have a thick, whipped milk chocolate center (like a dense, truffled Aero bar center) and a dark chocolate coating, both of which are very tasty. It also has bits of nuts inside! I think they are hazelnuts – thought the bits are tiny, they are numerous and add a delightful bit of crunchy texture.
Ulker Chocolate Wafer: This style of snack isn’t overly popular in the U.S., but the wafer cookie is a mainstay in Eastern and Southern Europe. To me, this snack is emblematic of Turkey’s position, with one foot in Europe. It is your standard wafer cookie, with cocoa creme layers and a chocolate coating.
Ulker Cokonat Wafer Bar: Though the name makes this sound like a Mounds bar, it is actually a combo of cocoa and [hazel]nuts, not coconut. The wafer in the center is filled with hazelnut creme, and the coating has crisps and bits of hazelnut encased in dark chocolate. Lots of great hazelnut flavor.
Ulker Albeni Milk Chocolate: This bar combines light, powdery cookie with a ribbon of caramel and a chocolate coating. The overall effect is that of a giant Twix. Sweet and delicious!
This was a really fun Treats. The selection was interesting, in that it steered clear of some of the items traditionally associated with Turkish culture (nougats, figs, dates, etc), and instead brought the snacks that Turks are more likely to enjoy on a regular basis. Sometimes its fun to look beyond the traditional and get a sense of the current. Everything had a Western analog, yet was distinct in flavor or balance of ingredients. We love it when Treats takes us to snack destinations that surprise us! It’s fun to see what people around the world like to snack on – some snacks are fairly universal, others are quite peculiar. Treats do a good job of including only good stuff – nothing is strange is included in the box solely for shock value.
Have you tried Treats yet? What did you think of the box?
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