Tea has a long history of being a part of high-culture in England and in Japan. Sakuraco offers tea-for-two subscription boxes that combine elements of Western tea tradition with Japan’s. Sakuraco was kind enough to send me another box to review–this box themed around cherry blossoms. After all, we are in cherry-blossom season. Although Sakuraco provided the goodies, my taste buds are my own.

Sakuraco’s March box offers a balance of flavors centered on cherry blossoms. Sakuraco brings you traditional-style crackers, cookies, and other snacks that have roots to the samurai and traditional arts culture. This season’s box offers a balance of slightly sweet flavors balanced with salty crackers. The arrangement contains dry cookies balanced with moist donut sticks along with hard textures balanced by soft.

Let’s begin with the tea. If you aren’t familiar with bouquet tea, this type of tea contains dried flowers,tea, and herbs that rehydrate in your teacup. The cherry-blossom tea in this box has a light flavor that some may find too light if your sense of taste is used to more intense flavors like soda pop. However, the light taste pairs well with the heavier cherry-flavors of the desserts. If the tea also had a heavier cherry flavor, the flavors could become too intense.

The other goodies are designed so you can split them among two people with each person getting a different showcase snack, either a sakura warabimochi or a sakura castella. Sakuraco boxes make for a good monthly tea-date. Sakura warabimochi resembles clear gelatin and is flavored with cherry blossom honey (honey offers a lot of exploration if you are interested: I enjoy German Dark Forest honey the most, for example). The castella is a fluffy cake with a cherry flavor that only appears when you sip the tea with it.

The box contains familiar shortbread cookies that, while dry, avoid becoming chalky as some dry shortbread can become. Their dryness balances nicely with the sakura donut bou, which is a honey and cherry blossom donut stick. The texture varies against the more-cake-like American donuts you may be familiar with, but these donuts balance the shortbread cookies and the crunchy sakura cookies.

On the salty side you find Ume Shio Rice Crackers and Sakura Leaf Senbei. Salt easily overpowers my sense of taste, so I couldn’t taste anything except salt with the rice crackers and the senbei. I prefer the smaller shiso senbei over these. Your salt sensitivity may vary however. For some, the shiso senbei’s light flavor may be too light.

My favorite treat in this box was the mochi bites. These have a nice cherry flavor with mochi’s soft chew.

Of course, inside the box you will also find a glossy booklet explaining the hanami season’s historical roots and culture along with a brief description of each dessert along with each dessert’s allergens. Japanese treats aren’t as dense in calories as American treats, in part, because of their smaller portions and lighter use of sugar. The booklet also discusses the businesses Sakuraco works with and touches on how these small businesses create their sweets. In this box, the booklet discusses the maker of the donut bou, Fujibambi, and how the company survived fires and other financial problems. These short articles give you a peek at the businesses and people behind the products, which I find interesting.

Inside this box you will find a small ceramic plate accented with blossoms. Depending on the style of your teaware, these could fit in well with your collection. My teaware is utilitarian and leans more toward the Chinese style than Japanese, so the dark dish fits in.

As I’ve mentioned earlier, these tea boxes would make for a great at-home date. Brew the tea, set out the treats on nice dishes and a fancy arrangement, then sit, talk, and enjoy the moment with your loved one. It may sound a bit corny, perhaps, but too often we don’t pause and savor moments that can never return. Japanese tea tradition focuses on these fleeting moments, which never repeat, and are gone all too soon. You can use anything to create these moments, but a monthly (or occasional) tea box could provide a reminder to stop and savor if you struggle with setting aside such moments on your own.

Thanks again, Sakuraco, for sending another box to review!