Bocandy International Snacks Review, February 2015, First Month Free!

One of the newest competitors in the international candy subscription arena is Bocandy. According to the site, they send "a candy subscription box from around the world, minus the box".  I couldn't find any information on the site letting potential subscribers know how much candy to expect per shipment which is a pretty big omission.  The site seems underdeveloped with lots of misspellings and outdated information (like a major heading on the FAQ page about the cut-off date for November 2014 orders).  

Bocandy is $15 per month with discounts for longer term subscriptions:

Four months - $56 ($14 per month)
Six months - $78 ($13 per month)
Eight months - $96 ($12 per month)

My first shipment took a LONG time to arrive, about five weeks.  Turns out they ship near the end of the month (around the 24th) and I signed up shortly after the first of the month, meaning I was in for a lengthy wait.  A lot of sub companies send out first shipments very quickly to head off any concerns of first time buyers (great business practice, by the way) but that is not the case here.

The February shipment arrived via USPS first class mail in a bubble envelope.  The presentation was super basic with no information card, welcome flyer, coupons or anything except the snacks.

Here's what the bag included - five full size single serve snacks and two sour ball type hard candies.

The biggest snack is a bag of Exotic Crisps - Ripe Plantain from Asiko in Costa Rica. As you probably know, plaintain looks like banana but that's where the resemblance ends.  These look like thinly sliced banana chips but taste nothing like banana.  They are lightly salted and quite crispy.  I like these a lot and would buy them if I came across them while traveling in Central America!

These Cadbury Dairy Milk Buttons are classic candies from the U.K.  I've received them in quite a few previous candy or snack subscriptions.  I'm sure they are good but since I prefer dark chocolate, these will be gifted.

The only word I can make out on the label of the two small hard candies is "Napoleon". There's also a tiny image of the emperor himself so I'm guessing these come from France?  I tried the yellow one; it's a good sour lemon ball.

Next is a cute little acrylic box full of seedless tamarind candy from "Big Enjoy" of Thailand. These look like sugared and salted lumps of ginger.  Unfortunately, my previous encounters with tamarind in other candy subs have taught me that I don't care for it so I'll be passing this one along too.

Next is a small milk chocolate bar called Fry's Turkish Delight, an odd name for another Cadbury product.  This comes from the U.K., maybe Ireland (it's hard to tell from the back). The wrapper describes it as "Turkish delight wrapped in milk chocolate" which doesn't tell us much.  I think it contains nuts.

The last item is a full size candy bar (two slim logs actually) called Kinder Bueno which I think may be from Poland.  Judging from the picture (since there are no English words), this looks like milk chocolate with hazelnut filling.  I thought that edible items distributed in the U.S. had to have English language nutrition labels. I have seen those sticker labels on lots of other imported food items.  Since I can't read anything on the package, this one is pretty much a leap of faith.

   

As you can see, there wasn't a lot in this package.  If I had paid $15, I would have been pretty unhappy.  However, Bocandy does have a great promotion for first time buyers. When you subscribe, you get the first month for free.  That effectively makes the cost of each of the first two shipments $7.50 (less if you commit to a longer term).  I don't know if the first two shipments are representative of what you can expect for the higher price starting in the third month, but $15 is too much for five candies.  If you do decide to sign up, I strongly recommend one of the longer term subscriptions to get the average monthly price down to a more reasonable amount.

I'm on the fence about this one.  On the one hand, I like to support entrepreneurs and young businesses.  On the other hand, the experience here really leaves a lot to be desired. I did see a recent Tweet saying that Bocandy will be graduating from bags to boxes in March, a very necessary upgrade if you ask me.  (Dark chocolate would be nice too!)

Have you tried Bocandy yet?  If so, please comment below and let us know what you thought.

Thanks for reading,

Cheryl

Disclosure:  Views and opinions expressed in this blog are strictly my own.  Product discussed in this post was purchased by Lone Star Shopper. Post does not contain referral or affiliate links.