Pickles and Tea Blog

A few months ago, I was given a complimentary one month supply of Red Bean Box, a monthly service that delivers gourmet Asian snacks to your doorstep every month. I was impressed with the tasty, high-quality selection: almond cookies, ginger chews, sesame rolls, and to my delight, MSG-free instant rice noodles! Plus a lovely oolong from Red Blossom Tea Company.

Founder Wes Radez is committed to helping customers discover everyday products and services that are faithful to Asian traditions and updated for a modern lifestyle. Instead of the usual products one might find at your local Asian store, Wes goes the extra mile to source foods from specialty importers and local artisans. I have such a soft spot for local and artisanal, I fell in love with the concept right away!

I asked Wes to tell us a little more about Red Bean Box.

1. How and why did you start Red Bean Box? How is it different from other snack box subscriptions?

Our customers are really passionate about finding the best Asian foods and want an easy way to bring an element of contemporary Asian culture into their daily lives. I started Red Bean Box because of my own frustration searching for this combination of quality foods and a cultural connection. Red Bean Box makes it convenient for busy people to enjoy delicious Asian snacks, carefully curated for quality and cultural authenticity, at home or at the office.

2. How do you source items for your boxes and do you have a theme or formula for the monthly selections?

Our goal is to help our customers discover new, high-quality Asian snacks from importers and local artisans that they won’t find at their neighborhood stores. We research online, read the message boards and visit the stores looking for the food finds that are usually only shared among friends as whispered secrets. Some of our favorites are places like Red Blossom Tea Company, Jade Chocolates, Nippon-Ya and Heartland Healthy Foods all here in San Francisco. Each month’s box is built around a cultural theme, whether a holiday like Lunar New Year, foods from a city like Hong Kong or a special topic like nostalgic foods from childhood.

3. Your Red Bean Blog  includes lots of fun, informative tidbits and easy recipes. One of my favorite recent posts is on keeping ginger fresh by storing in Chinese wine. Where do you get your ideas from?

I like to think of the Red Bean Blog as the Asian Real Simple Magazine for contemporary American living. We cover a variety of lifestyle topics such as starting an Asian herb garden and preparing regional Asian meals at home after work. The formula is basically to take all the tips you might receive from your Asian mother or grandmother, and then updating them for contemporary living in 2014.

4. You also include detailed product info in your boxes. Why is educating and empowering your customers important to you?

My goal is to help our customers and their families connect with Asian culture during their daily lives in a really fun and natural way. It’s meant to be engaging and contemporary. I think of all the cultural information we include in our boxes and online as a set of tools that our customers can “remix” in their lives however they like. You can cook one of our recipes after work, read an article and daydream about a past trip to Asia or use each month’s box as a way to stimulate family conversation around the kitchen table.

5. I love all kinds of Asian snacks and prepared foods but oftentimes they contain additives like MSG, preservatives and food coloring. I’m always on the lookout for organic/all-natural versions. I’m so excited that Red Bean Box offers organic products. Can you tell us more about them?

Yes! Finding organic and all-natural Asian foods can seem impossible! In past months, we’ve featured all-natural roasted seaweed, crystallized ginger and even, the holy grail, completely organic, non-GMO instant noodles! Healthy living and sustainability are really important values for us and we prioritize organic and all-natural foods for Red Bean Box whenever possible.

Thank you, Wes!

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I’m sure we’re all thinking about shopping and gifts today, Black Friday. Why not consider a Red Bean Box subscription? It makes a great holiday gift for yourself or that “I never know what to buy for him/her” friend or family member.

And lucky us, Wes is giving away 2 one-month subscriptions to Red Bean Box! Just leave a comment with your favorite Asian snack and we’ll randomly choose 2 winners.

Last day to enter: Friday, December 12th, 2014.
Sorry, but we can only mail to U.S. addresses.

Disclosure: Even though I was given a complimentary Red Bean Box, all opinions are my own!