Desert Drinks & Exotics, first taste

Here it is, the first batch of reviews from my megabox of worldwide treats from Desert Drinks & Exotics!

Desert Drink adventure part 2

Hey, my package overflowing with globetrotting junk food has arrived already!

The box was in good shape, indicating decent handling by UPS. There are a token handful of packing peanuts, but not really enough to accomplish much and there is plenty of void space, as you can see. Items condition as delivered varies from seemingly pristine to pretty darn squashed or squished. The box did bear a fragile label.

The Moon Pies, very susceptible to crushing, look to be in fine shape. The drinks are also looking fine across the board. A couple of chocolate items I think were simply poorly timed because of the blast of heat we’re experiencing. I think there was some melting, coupled with moving around against boxes and bottles, did them a disservice. I’m hoping some cooling with revive them a bit before opening, although I don’t expect them to be pretty.

The boxes of Oreo rolls were pretty crushed and the two bags of flavored popcorn from Egypt look downright trampled. But the Twinkie, also from Egypt, looks fine. The two bags of chips also seem fine with tons of air padding.

My assumption is that any damage, apart from melting, happened on the way to Desert Drinks and not due to their handling or shipping. I’m hoping they won’t be a total letdown like Pringles that inevitably show up as a pile of crumbs of varying sizes in a tube.

Although I’d like to see a little more creative/effective packaging, so far this experience isn’t too bad. In particular, I think they need to think a bit about what they’re selling…heavy, round bottles and cans of beverages and somewhat fragile snack foods. That’s basically what they’re shipping every time. Some way of protecting the snacks from the drinks would be a good idea. Just off the top of my head, maybe dividing the boxes into compartments, one for drinks and one for snacks. It wouldn’t have to be fancy, just a piece of cardboard dividing them might help.

From here I’ll have to decide whether I try them all and post a sum up or, more likely, review a few at a time.

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Join me on this snack journey

Maybe you’ve gotten the same ad on social media somewhere…Desert Drinks & Exotics. Wacky fun drinks and snacks from around the world! It was the passionfruit drink picture that really sucked me in, though. Big passionfruit juice fan right here (I even bought passionfruit powder so I could make passionfruit ice cream). Anywho…

napaJapan, a few of my favorite things

My post about my first order from napaJapan is my most consistently “popular”. Week in and week out, it is the post that continually gets hits. Maybe people want to see what I ordered, maybe they want to know if they can trust ordering from Jason at napaJapan. Well, let me set your mind at ease if that’s the case, they are incredibly reliable and 100% on the level. I just checked my account (they conveniently save your old orders so you can remember what you’ve ordered!), and I’ve placed over 40 orders from there over the past couple of years. I was going to post how much I’ve spent, but after doing the math…uh…I’d rather not. 🙂

Anyway, given the obvious interest out there, and the number of items I’ve purchased, I thought maybe I would put together a list of some of my favorite things from past napaJapan orders – things I buy over and over again and some of the limited edition stuff. So if you’re thinking of placing an order but aren’t sure about spending the money on stuff you might not like, maybe this will help you go for it and at least have some security that you can get some recommended items! A while back I did start to keep a spreadsheet of things I’d ordered and how they were…Jason carries so many items, and so many come in and out of stock due to seasonal manufacturing or whatever, that I had trouble keeping track of what I’d tried and what I want to keep ordering.

Also, in these less than comfortable financial times, I hope everyone keeps supporting small businesses if they can, even ones on the other side of the world that sell candy and snacks. Import and postal restrictions have started to have an impact on napaJapan. The slow (and least expensive) shipping option that I always pick is not currently available as the Japanese post office won’t accept these packages due to flight shortages. And some countries will not accept shipments. Plus deliveries are slower. For now the USA is OK, but depending on what country you live in, check with the site to be sure they can ship to you for the immediate future.

One more quick note – sign up for their mailing list at the bottom of the page. About once a month you’ll get an email with some new items and whatever deal Jason is running – a percentage off with a certain $ purchase and/or some free stuff, etc. If you have any interest, sign up. So let’s get to it!

Post-Christmas 2017 HomeGoods goodies

I love going to HomeGoods a couple of weeks after Christmas.  They always have strange, imported goodies still kicking around and start putting them on clearance.  I ended up with an armload this year (although mostly not clearanced, yet, still cheap).  But I’ll kick off with something I certainly did NOT buy – a 2,000-count dark chocolate selection!

In brief – Mr. Ito Watermelon Choco Chip cookies from Japan

I got these Mr. Ito Watermelon Choco Chip cookies as a free gift from a recent NapaJapan order (sign up for the newsletter, every month you’ll get a peek at what’s new and a code for some free items when you place a minimum order).  They are…weird.

Things I didn’t write about

In cleaning out my phone’s photos, it turns out there were a number of things I didn’t get around to reviewing for one reason or another.  Let’s wrap them up here, for good or ill.