Review: MUNCHPAK (IT’S CONTEST TIME!) & Burrito Vending Machine? Well done *slow clap*
OH SNAP, Junk Food Nation. It’s CONTEST TIME up in here, thanks to my good friends at MUNCHPAK, a brand new monthly junk food mail-subscription service! But we’ll get to that in a minute.
First, I just wanted to give a QUICK shout-out to best best new invention of 2014 so far: THE BURRITO BOX, or the world’s first burrito vending machine. SAY WHAAA. Oh, that’s right. The Burrito Box (like Red Box) is so far only available in two locations in LA, but it’s safe to say we need these EVERYWHERE.
You put in money. Select your breakfast/lunch burrito. And the machine gives you a hot, hormone- and antibiotic-free burritos for $3. THREE DOLLARS, PEOPLE! Apparently, flavors include: roasted potato with cage-free egg and cheese; uncured bacon with cage-free egg; chorizo sausage with cage-free egg and cheese; shredded beef and cheese, and free-range chicken with beans and rice.
Dude. Someone get this in my office building, stat.
OK, BACK TO TODAY’S JUNK FOOD: MUNCHPAK!
The good people at MunchPak contacted me to ask if I’d like to try one of their MunchPaks, and I said yes. But let’s begin with what MunchPak is. According to their website:
“MunchPak was created to allow people to try snacks from all over the US and the rest of the world. No matter if you are really busy or just plain lazy… MunchPak makes snacking convenient by offering free shipping to it’s subscribers.”
Got that? Subscription-based mail-order US/international snack boxes.
My MunchPak arrived in a good size cardboard box adorned with MunchPak tape. When I sliced it open, inside I found confetti! Like a party just got started.
Here’s how MunchPak works: You pay money. You sign up for a plan: one month, 3 month, 6 month, etc. You sign up for frequency: weekly, bi-weekly, monthly. And then they send you snack boxes full of snacks from all over the US and all over the world.
The range of MunchPak snack variety was seem in MY personal MunchPak – I saw snacks above from Asia, the US, Mexico, the UK… their website states:
“MunchPak was built and designed with the intention of letting people try the most popular snacks, and of course, local favorites from all over the world. There are tons of great tasting snacks from quality companies all over the US that aren’t offered in every state. There are also thousands of other delicious snacks made by various companies all over the world.”
So, they’re trying to bring the variety to YOU. Let’s take a look at what I received…
My MunchPak had a number of Latin snacks: Barritas Frescas, which looked like a Strawberry Newton with the innards exposed, De La Rosa Peanut Confection, my FAVORITE marzipan peanut candy, Sabritones, a chile/lime fake-pork-rind snack, Japanese Nuts, I saw these a lot when I was in Mexico, slightly offensive but TASTY, Gansito, a chocolate covered Twinkie that also has jelly inside, and Pulparindo, an “extra hot and salted tamarind pulp candy.” Strangely enticing.
My MunchPak had a bunch of US goods: Famous Amos Cookies, not to be confused with Famous Jameis, Snyder’s PB Pretzel Sandwiches, yummy, and Herr’s Ketchup Potato Chips, to which the Junk Food Gal definitely said EWWWW.
US Snacks, continued: Gardettos, the better-than-Chex-Mix snack mix, Sweet and Salty Nuts, *cue immature laugh*, Original Penguin, uh…it says milk chocolate covered biscuit filled with chocolate cream…oooook……
…Sour Smog Balls, crunchy candy w/ sour chewy center, Pop-Tarts, Munch Peanut Bar, Rice Krispies Treat, and something called Chick O Stick, which the Junk Food Gal thought was orange gum, but Google reveals is a peanut butter confection.
My MunchPak had Asian snacks too! Hello Panda, cookies with chocolate cream inside, cellophane wrapper rice crackers (love these), Pocky, a popular stick cookie, Grape Bubble gum, and Hi-Chews, the best damn Asian Starburst I’ve ever had.
My MunchPak ended with two offerings from Europe – Nutella, which I will eat on anything, including my fingernails, and Cadbury Dairy Milk Buttons, which I’m pretty sure are just chocolate chips, but what do I know?
So that was my MunchPak! For $20 a month, it’s a good deal – there’s definitely more than $20 worth of snacks in this box, and if you’re someone who just goes through life jones-ing for crazy ass snacks to supplement your already energetic US junk food habit (like me), then MunchPak is DEFINITELY for you. AND GUESS WHAT? I’m gonna give two of you out there a chance to try a MunchPak snack box for YOURSELF. READ ON, NATION!
PURCHASED AT: MunchPak.com
COST: $19.95 a month
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*** AND NOW, THE CONTEST DETAILS! ***
THE PRIZE: A MunchPak Box of your VERY OWN! Sent directly to your home (even if you live in Alaska or Hawaii!)
THE WINNERS: There will be TWO winners! TWO (2)!! Not one, but two. Two is more than one. I just blew your mind.
HOW TO ENTER: Because there will be TWO winners, there are TWO ways to enter!
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>> METHOD 1: TWIT PIC CONTEST! <<
One MunchPak will be mailed to a Twitter winner, and here’s how to enter:
1. Join Twitter. This is a Twitter contest, so man up and sign up. I keep telling you to do this. So do it.
2. Snap a picture of where YOU’D munch on your MunchPak! Your desk at work? Your couch at home? Under a tree? The top of a dome? Take some cool pictures of cool places where you’d like to snack on a MunchPak. You can be in the picture, but you don’t have to be.
3. Once you’re on Twitter, TWEET THE PICTURE TO ME including the following cut-and-paste line:
Hey @junkfoodguy – This is where I’d munch on my @MunchPakSnacks!
You can use TwitPic, MyPict, Instagram, whatever – just tweet me the picture and remember to include the @ tags.
4. Tweet me as many pictures as you like, and my FAVORITE PICTURE WILL WIN! You can certainly enter more than once, and the more times you tweet me a different pic, the more times you’ll be entered. The winners of the Candy Corn Oreos DELUGED MY TIMELINE with tweets. You can do the same thing! AND THAT’S IT. You’ll automatically be entered in a drawing for a MunchPak!
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>> METHOD 2: COMMENT CONTEST! <<
The second MunchPak winner will come from a comment left below! Here’s how to enter:
1. Leave a comment about what your favorite NON-US/INTERNATIONAL junk food, snack food, fast food is. Nutella? Pocky? Japanese Kit Kats? Canadian potato chips? What flavors?
2. Be sure to include your email address in the applicable field below so I can email the winner. AND THAT’S IT! Comment away – this winner will be selected at random.
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>> EXTRA DETAILS FOR BOTH METHODS <<
A. Contest ends at 11:59pm EST on Tuesday, January 14, 2014. Get all your pics tweeted and comments left before then! I’ll announce the two winners on Wednesday, January 15, 2014.
B. US residents are the only ones eligible to participate, INCLUDING HAWAII AND ALASKA. But NO PO Boxes. I don’t make the rules. Wait, I kind of do. But whatever – keep that in mind.
C. YOU CAN ENTER USING BOTH METHODS. Tweet me a pic. Leave me a comment. You can only win once, but why not increase your chances by entering both? DO IT.
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So that’s it, Junk Food Nation! Enter my contest and TWO OF YOU WILL WIN A MUNCHPAK, mailed directly to your door. BOOM.
Thoughts? Please comment below or hit me up on Twitter @junkfoodguy or LIKE my Facebook Page and message me there. I also have Google+!! Let’s hang out.
Sincerely,
Junk Food Guy
Discuss - 89 Comments
Two comments:
1) Ketchup flavored potato chips rock! And I have been known to dip plain chips in ketchup just to get the flavor. This is the natural progression.
2) When I lived in the UK during law school, I ate Maltesers like they were going out of style. Love those things. Just like the Whoppers I used to eat growing up.
Oh, I very much want a Munch Pak. I gotta go with prawn crackers –not the Walker’s potato chips, but the puffy UFO-looking things that you get with takeout Chinese orders in the UK. Or those tiny Japanese chocolate filled biscuit pillows that have pictures of koala bears on them, so you feel like you’re eating a bear in the middle of the afternoon.
Dairy Milk Buttons are SO MUCH BETTER than chocolate chips! I used to travel to London a lot for work and those Buttons (and anything else made by UK Cadbury) were my downfall. I also second the Maltesers comment. I still order those, a chocolate mix called Revels, and Walkers cheese and onion crisps from a website that sells British products in the US. Definitely considering a Munch Pak subscription just for the non-US stuff alone!
This is an amazing invention. My faith in humanity is restored for another day.
I gotta go with Hobnobs, from the UK. They’re a sort of oatmeal cookie covered in chocolate on one side. The best part is saying “Ello, ello, ello, care for a HOBNOB?” in a hoity toity British accent while you eat them.
I like those crunchy wasabi peas.
I think Cadbury Eclairs are excellent.
Kindereggs, punks! Those are MY non-US favs!
One of my favorite foreign snack foods is the Hello Panda cookies! They’re cute, my favorite are the strawberry ones
I WANT THIS. 0_o
My favorite international delight (not the coffee lol) is all Cadbury brand chocolate candy that is legitimately produced in Europe, not by Hershey’s here in the US. It’s absolutely delicious!
I also love Canadian Swiss cheese crackers and Cheese Bits crackers, which we used to have here but sadly don’t any more 🙁 Hi-Chews are yummy also.
Oh ya, just as an FYI, I think that the penguin snack in your Munchpak is from the UK too.
Definitely Chocolate Hob Nobs from the UK. So good with tea or coffee!
My favorite is the E. Wedel candy bar from Poland – forest duet, perfect blend of berries!
Its gotta be Mackintosh’s toffee-a childhood favorite when in lived in Buffalo.
Kasugai Lychee gummy candy is my favorite junk food of the moment.
White Rabbit Chinese Candy!!
I love Dutch stroopwafels. Especially when dipped in coffee! I get them whenever I go to World Market.
Nutella is my favorite!!!! You can put it on so many things. I love it on Nilla wafers. I was on a diet for 10 months and lost 95 pounds, then I got pregnant. So now I have an excuse to have a yummy snack every now and then. So happy!
Oh and my second favorite is Hi Chew. I used to buy them on Amazon…so much better than starburst!
The Intense Pickle Doritos from Canada are AMAZING. Can’t understand why Doritos doesn’t just make hundreds of flavors to fill aisles up in every US grocery store.
I have never really had snacks from other countries, that I know of, so I guess I really need to win a Munchpak!
I once had some Canadian Lays chips that were dill pickle flavored. It wasn’t bad at all.
My favorite chocolate ever… green tea kit kats! The first time I tried one, I thought it tasted like dirt, though. It’s an acquired taste.
aero bars are my favorite. i’d prefer if cadbury brought back whispa though.
Wispa bars are available in the UK – they’ve been back for a couple of years. Also the Wispa Gold are back with a layer of caramel at the top. I miss the mint ones though with a layer of mint creme!
😀
My favorite junk food is Nutella. I buy the individual paks at Target and hide them. Otherwise, my kids would eat them.
I recently traveled to Finland for a week and in that time I fell so in love with Fazer chocolate bars that I spent a month tracking down a place here in the US where I can at least purchase the main bars that they make, and I have told my friend in Finland that she can have my first born in exchange for Fazer chocolate bars for life sent to me on a regular basis!
Nutella, because, well, it’s Nutella. And awesome. You don’t need to put it on anything. Just grab a spoonful when nobody’s looking.
Does Lindt count? I’m really fond of their Mozartkugeln.
Anything Cadbury from the uk or canada!!!!:) thanks for the contest, love your blog!
The first time I went abroad I flew on Lufthansa and on board they had the German equivalent of Goldfish called Jumpy’s. They were paprika flavored, kangaroo shaped crackers. Easily had four snack bags on the flight and snagged another 4 in my carry-on! Addicting and I haven’t been able to ever find them in the states.
Love this blog, hope I get a munchpak 🙂
I think Swedish Fish qualify, I love those things and have to ration them. I take them and squish them and roll them into a cylinder to soften them, scarf it down. Roll, scarf, repeat.
Or maybe Ritter Sport Cocoa Moose, a new obsession. Man, those are good.
Matcha-flavored Japanese Kit Kats! I’m almost glad my corner bodega doesn’t sell these, otherwise I’d be in BIG trouble.
Haribo gummy bears from Germany. Took a work trip to Germany and they have different shapes and more flavors.
My favorite snack is definetly the sweet and salty nut mix! I could easily take down a days worth of calories of those!
By the way im hoping for a Patriots-Seattle superbowl..but if i had to bet on it, it would be Broncos-Seattle.
Kinder Bueno bars!
Hi-chews are THE best fruit chew candy i’ve ever had. love em.
Never had ketchup potato chips but they sound delicious!
I was trying to think of my favorite and then it all came back to Nutella. I eat that stuff right out of the jar. And sometimes in bed! Lol. I love bad food and would love to get some junk in the mail!
Hmmm I would have to go with the aero bar which I think is European the chocolate bar with the air pockets
I love anything Cadbury. I’m a chocolate fiend.
Ibarra chocolate bars from Mexico are awesome! I live in a heavily Bosnian area and there are tons of bosnain snacks in the store but I can’t say I have a favorite.
I’ve been obsessed with Nutella ever since my 7th grade French teacher introduced it to us naïve US kids. I was slathered on French bread and served with Orangina drink….yum!!!
My favorite international snack is Pocket Coffee. They’re kind of hard to find here in the US, they’re these awesome chocolates with a liquid espresso center, yum! I think they’re made in Italy.
My favorite non-US snack that you received is Nutella. 80% of my Nutella consumption is probably eating it with a spoon straight from the jar.
In general, I recently discovered Tim Tams. SO good.
Any meat-flavoured (sic.) British crisps.
The best place I can go to for international snacks is Jungle Jim’s in Cincinnati. Marzipan is on the top of the list plus anything in the chocolate aisle!
I love the Cadbury brand! Yum!
I LOVE Herr’s Ketchup Chips. They’re a pain in the ass to find around here.
And my favorite international foods… I love Cadbury Flake bars, and Fry’s Fondant Cream bars. And I love Ritz Custard Sandwiches from Japan.
French Toast Crunch. How I do pine and long for thee!
First off, I have 5 kids, so treats and snacks NEVER last in my house long enough for me to ever get any! Second, I sadly have not experienced any international snacks or treats, other than Chiclets from Mexico… Would love to get a MunchPak to try all the awesomeness that I’ve been missing!
Cadbury Crunchie is one of those candies I will hunt specialty grocers for when the craving hits. It’s a saltier, more interestingly textured toffee.
My favorite snack would have to be these Asian shrimp chips. I have no idea what they’re called but they are pink, irregularly shaped, and have black specks all over them. They taste sooooo amazing. Everytime I go to an Asian grocery store I get those along with hi chew and pocky.
My favorite snacks are ones that contain hazelnuts. So that means pretty much anything Ferrero makes. The Kinder Bueno’s are awesome.
This looks like such a fun subscription box!
And my favorite foreign snack would definitely have to be those Aero chocolate bars or ketchup flavored Pop Chips- which I believe you can only get in Canada? Unfair!
Hello! I live in England, and have to say Cadbury’s chocolate is amazing. The buttons are little disc shaped chocolates (they have a white chocolate one too) and very popular with kids (and big kids!). They also make a GIANT button bag where they’re about 4x the size…equally amazing.
Can’t enter the competition but good luck to everyone!! 😀