Best International Food Subscription Boxes

Best Overall: Try The World

Buy on Trytheworld.com

Why We Chose It: With multiple options and eclectic curation, Try The World is a great way to discover far-flung tastes and ingredients.

The vast majority of international food boxes focus on snacks and candy—most people are fond of them, these items are not perishable, and they are easy to stock and ship. There's just one problem: Snacks and candy represent only a tiny slice of the overall international food scene. That's why Try The World offers two subscription boxes: the Snacks box and the Countries box.

The Snacks box includes six snacks and/or candies from six different countries every month. Past boxes featured popular items like Honey and Salt Toffee from South Africa, Yuzu Gummies from Japan, and Pickled Garlic Sriracha Banana Chips from Thailand. It's a great way to receive a broad selection of international flavors every single month.

The Countries box, on the other hand, focuses on one country at a time and contains not only snacks, but also drinks, spices, condiments, and cooking ingredients. You'll get seven or eight items each month, all from a single country. Nations represented in the boxes have included Portugal, Morocco, Sweden, and others.

The Snacks box costs roughly $15 to $20 per month, depending on the length of your subscription. The price of the Countries box is similarly determined, ranging from around $30 to $40. Shipping is free for both subscriptions.

Best for Cooks: Raw Spice Bar

Buy on Rawspicebar.com

Why We Chose It: If you love to explore international flavors in your home cooking, Raw Spice Bar is the subscription for you.

Raw Spice Bar is a spice company that focuses on creating fresh, authentic international spice blends. As of January 2021, the company stocked over 20 different spice mixtures, representing more than a dozen styles of international cuisine, including Ethiopian Berbere spice, Jamaican Jerk seasoning, Chinese Five Spice, Persian Advieh, Japanese Shichimi Togarashi, and Moroccan-style Ras El Hanout.

Serious cooks know that freshly ground spices are so much more pungent, nuanced, and flavorful than seasonings that have been sitting around in a jar. That's why all spices from Raw Spice Bar are toasted and ground just before shipping, and labeled with the date of packaging. Plus, spices from Raw Spice Bar are organic and transparently sourced, for quality that is sure to show up in your finished dishes.

For cooks looking to challenge themselves and broaden their palates, Raw Spice Bar's Spice Subscription is the way to go. Each month you'll get a 2-ounce packet of a spice blend, along with recipe ideas that will inspire you to make the most of it, for a cost of about $10. Shipping is included.

Best for Snacks: Universal Yums

Buy on Universalyums.com

Why We Chose It: Universal Yums is the best tour guide for your journey through the fascinating world of foreign snacks.

No matter where you go in the world, you'll find all manner of munchies to which the local population is fervently devoted. Snacks, in other words, are universal, and that's what Universal Yums is all about.

Universal Yums guides you through the world of munchies one country at a time. Past boxes have featured countries like Italy, Russia, Colombia, Egypt, Thailand, and the United Kingdom. The boxes include a mix of sweet and savory munchies, depending on the tastes of the local natives. Austrians, for example, seem to prefer sweet treats, with top items like Chocolate Almond Wafers, Soft Orange Gingerbread, and Lemon Peppermint Patties. Thai people, on the other hand, lean toward the savory side with snacks like Sweet and Spicy Garlic Crisps and Salty Pineapple Candy. To add fun and context to the featured goodies, Universal Yums also includes a 12+ page guidebook with snack info, trivia, games, and recipes.

The Monthly boxes come in three sizes: 5–7 snacks, 10–12 snacks, and 18–20 snacks, for around $15, $25, and $40, respectively. You can subscribe monthly or annually, or for fixed periods of one, three, six, or 12 months. Shipping is free. Best of all, if you fall in love with a particular snack, you can order more. Just scroll to the bottom of the page and click on "Yum Shop."

Best for Kids: eat2explore

Buy on Eat2explore.com

Why We Chose It: eat2explore is a fun, interactive, cultural, and culinary education for the whole family.

Rowena Scherer founded eat2explore in 2016. Inspired by her childhood in Malaysia, and driven by her experiences as a working mother and trained chef, Scherer resolved to serve families by bringing together culinary education, cultural awareness, and family fun in a single product/service.

The monthly eat2explore box contains a lot of material. There are three recipe cards, a shopping list, educational activity sheets, essential ingredients (like spices, sauces, and grain mixes), information about the featured country, cooking tools, and collectibles. Once you receive the box, it's up to you to shop for fresh ingredients like meat and vegetables and get your family involved in the adventure.

As of January 2021, eat2explore offered boxes from 18 countries. You can either let the company choose which country will be featured in your monthly box, or choose yourself by focusing on a specific continent. Subscriptions cost about $25 per month, with discounts available for longer-term commitments and prepayments. Shipping is a flat $5 per box.