Yes yes yes! It’s finally here! This month’s box consists of snacks from the Philippines! I have an interest in Filipino culture, so this is exciting for me. In fact, I wrote an article about my favorite fashion designers, which consisted of all Filipino designers. I linked the article on that below in case you want to check it out. In the meantime, here’s my take on the snacks.
The Snacks:
Fudgee Bar Macapuno: The color of the bar reminds me of a pistachio-flavor food item. Though it is made of macapuno coconut and doesn’t contain any pistachios. The first bite wasn’t bad, but it tasted quite funky. I don’t know what it is, but it’s not a pleasant taste. My mother said that it didn’t taste like anything. However, the funky taste still stands in my book. 2.5/5
Boy Bawang Cornick Adobo Flavor: This snack has a flavor that you taste on meat. It’s made adobo-style, so a meat-like flavor is to be expected. While pretty unusual in that sense, I like it. It’s different from American snacks, but I would eat this snack again for sure. Very flavorful and addicting. I wouldn’t be sorry for eating the whole bag in one sitting. 3.9/5
Goldilocks Pinipig Polvoron: When I first pulled this out the box, I found the look of the shortbread interesting. It looks like the unbaked homemade sugar cookies we have at home. The texture is reminiscent of the French shortbreads. In fact, some would probably think of it as just sand or dirt. These aren’t like the Girl Scouts’ Trefoils cookies, but they aren’t as good either. They don’t have any flavor that gives it a spark. The main thing remarkable about this cookie is the look. However, some people would probably consider eating this shortbread like eating sand. I could understand that, and honestly, the French shortbreads were more remarkable. 3/5
ChocoMucho Cookies & Cream: Even though this is in bar form, the look reminds me of Hershey’s cookies and cream chocolate. It’s an interesting look, but the taste? Not so much. In all honesty, the Draumur bar from Iceland and the Bib’s Flocos from Brazil had better tastes. They actually had me addicted from the start. I linked the Scandinavian and Brazilian snack reviews at the bottom of this article.
Some people would love this bar, and I could understand it. For me, it’s not horrible, but it doesn’t have a flavor that is addicting from the start. It’s not awful, but it’s not great either. It might take most of the bar to get addicted, if you ever do. I didn’t. It’s on the lower end of chocolate bars in terms of eating, but I’ll give it a solid rating for not being over-the-top awful. 3.5/5
Cupp Keyk Coco Ube: It’s made out of ube, which is a purple yam. The color is interesting, but there’s really no taste to it. It has coconut flakes, but the coconut flavor is really weak. If this cupcake was made out of sweet potatoes, it would’ve had more flavor. Again, this is not awful, but there’s nothing really good about it. If I go to Baguio City, where there’s ube-flavored foods eaten en masse in the summer, I might get one of these just to fit in. 3.3/5
Egg Bites: These look so much like mini vanilla wafers, even though “Egg Cookies” is stated on the pack. Beware that these are actually made of real eggs, so if you have an egg allergy, you couldn’t eat them. Anyways, I like the texture of them, and their sweetness is similar to a vanilla wafer in general. With the texture and sweetness together, these are actually good. I would eat these again. They’re modest, but they satisfy taste buds without being too much. 3.75/5
Baked Cheezy Puffs Sweet Butter & Cheese: Here comes Cheetos Puffs! Alright, I’m just kidding. Though seriously, these are similar to the cheese puffs eaten in America. They aren’t as savory as Cheetos Puffs, but they are also sweeter. The sweet butter explains the sweet flavor in the first place. They’re good, addicting, and a snack that I won’t forget. I ate these quite quickly, and I will have to eat these again when I go to the Philippines one day. Best snack I ate in this box to be honest. 4/5
Final Verdict: If you read my past cultural snack reviews, you saw where the Yum Bag is part of my overall rating. However, there was no Yum Bag this time. This is the first time I’ve had a Universal Yums box without that. They didn’t have outstanding candies (at least to me), but trying a couple of small Filipino candies would’ve been interesting.
In all honesty, hardly any of the snacks knocked it out of the park for me. However, this box ranks higher than the Polish and French boxes due to the consistency of the snack ratings. Not overwhelmingly high but not overwhelmingly low either. Nonetheless, trying the snacks in this box was really interesting. Hopefully I will get to try Filipino food and possibly different Filipino snacks one day in the future.
My Favorite Fashion Designers article: https://sweetsimplicity16.com/my-favorite-fashion-designers/
Scandinavian Snacks Review: https://sweetsimplicity16.com/trying-scandinavian-snacks-for-the-first-time/
Brazilian Snacks Review: https://sweetsimplicity16.com/trying-brazilian-snacks-for-the-first-time/
