missvictrix’s BeanieBox review: A cure for the winter blues

by missvictrix

We asked missvictrix to review our December BeanieBox. If you want to get cool treats and tasty Korean snacks, make sure to subscribe by January 16th to get this month’s box. In addition to the United States and Singapore, we now ship to Taiwan, Canada, and Hong Kong!
-DB Staff

MISSVICTRIX’S BEANIEBOX REVIEW

I’ve got to be honest — I missed the whole subscription box craze when it blew up a few years ago. This is strange, since I love getting mail (especially of the goodie box variety), but suffice it to say, the December BeanieBox is the first legit subscription box I’ve ever received. So I think it’s fair to call it a tropey “first love” experience, right? Because I did love it.

I knew it was coming and had to release my signature, so the element of surprise was missing, but that didn’t kill a bit of the excitement of coming home from work and finding a box on my front steps with the beloved Dramabeans logo on it. Boy, I couldn’t wait to crack it open.

I should preface this by saying it’s been cold and gloomy for weeks now, and I needed a pick-me-up as much as I needed some sunshine. Then, I kid you not, on the same day I came home to my BeanieBox, the sun popped out. And possibly a choir of angels too. (There’s even photographic evidence of the sun bursting into my kitchen in my photos!)

I’m not really much of a salty, crunchy kind of girl, so while a lot of the chips weren’t something I would order in bulk on Amazon, I had a great time having my own little tasting party. Spicy I can do, but boy I was not ready for the kick of the spicy corn chips. They’re sneakily sweet and pleasant. And then once you swallow it, your whole mouth goes on fire. The kkobuk chips with a “corn soup” flavor were also pretty fun, and the turtle on the package was so adorable. In fact, I loved the packaging on all of the snacks — the characters and cartoons were the best.

Since I’m not that much of a snack food person, I make up for it with two other vices: chocolate and coffee. Therefore, my two favorite snacks in the box were the Bird Egg chocolates (like M&Ms only better because they’re from South Korea), and the Miz Black cookies. Those cookies might look like cat food, but they taste like chocolatey heaven. And now I want more.

Like a few of the other writers have said, I was really looking forward to the Dramabeans swag angle of the subscription box (possibly even more so than the food).

In the December box I got a whole sheet of stickers with a holiday theme and the Dramabeans logo. I also got another bit of sticker swag, which was listed in the catalog as a “mega logo sticker.” By mega, I think they meant “mini” — but I really didn’t care. I’m actually an avid sticker lover, and that Dramabeans logo sticker joined the collection on my laptop just as quickly as I could slap it there.

Finally, I have to talk about the PPL angle, because that’s half the fun, right? While the bulk of the snacks in my box weren’t terribly familiar, my BeanieBox had the infamous Jellypo from Be Melodramatic… and the king of all PPL: Maxim Gold instant coffee.

Please be assured I did a full-on reenactment of Shin Sung-rok in An Empress’s Dignity as I boiled, brewed, and sipped my single serve cup. As I stirred my coffee with the packet (because there’s no other way to do it), I ran through a mental list of all the great Maxim PPL I’ve seen over the years, and almost felt like I was doing a toast to them all as I drank it.

It actually tasted better than I expected. It was sweet and full of evaporated milk, but the coffee taste was nice, and it was very drinkable. Because I’m a bit of a coffee snob, and like my coffee really strong, I might have added in a shot of espresso to balance the sweet milkiness a little more, before enjoying it with my drama. Because that’s what the box is for, right? Some goodies, some sunshine in a box, and an excuse to kick back and enjoy my dramas.

 
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