Universal Yums Review

Tuesday, January 21st

2025 Candy Club Reviews

Universal Yums

• Candy Club Selection: Chocolates, candies, cookies, and even savory treats, all themed by country
• Cost: Starting at $16 for the Yum Box (5-7 snacks), $26 for the Yum Yum Box (10-12 snacks), and $41 for the Super Yum Box (15-18 snacks)
• Duration: 1, 3, 6, or 12 months
• Frequency: Monthly
• Shipping: Free in the lower 48 United States

Universal Yums is a subscription box service that offers a unique and delightful experience for food enthusiasts by providing a curated selection of snacks from different countries around the world.

Treats from all over the world

Each month, subscribers receive a box filled with an assortment of sweet and savory snacks, candies, and treats originating from a specific country (or region). The company aims to introduce subscribers to the diverse and exotic flavors of global cuisine, allowing them to explore snacks that might not be readily available in their local markets. That being said, this isn't a candy club per se, so be aware that if you're only looking for sweets, Universal Yums doesn't even try to offer that.

Choose a club by how much you want to get

There are 3 boxes to choose from at Universal Yums, all varying by size and with no extra costs for shipping if you're sending the box within the continental US:

• Yum Box: starting at $16/month, this box comes with 5-7 snacks and a 12-page booklet with trivia and games related to the focus country
• Yum Yum Box: starting at $26/month, it comes with 5 additional snacks and a longer booklet of games and trivia
• Super Yum Box: starting at $41/month, you get everything in the Yum Yum box plus five additional full-size snacks, a drink, specialty food, and even more bonus content than the first two boxes

Prepay as a gift to get more options

You can opt to pay for your deliveries month to month, but the prices we referenced above assume that you're prepaying for a year. If you'd rather prepay for a shorter length of time, you'll want to use the gift option (even if you're giving it to yourself as a treat). That lets you choose from options of just one month, three months, or six months as well.

You might get to choose the first country

If inventory allows, Universal Yums lets you choose the country theme for your first box. At the time of this review, the options included Scandinavia, Germany, Czechia, Indonesia, and Greece (with some options only available on certain subscriptions). Depending on the time of year you're ordering, you might also see a "Holidays Everywhere” or another seasonally-themed option for the initial delivery. Subsequent boxes will be themed around countries of Universal Yums' choosing. Both within a particular calendar year and from one calendar year to the following one, there shouldn't be any repeats of countries, so you could potentially try treats from 24 different places over a two-year period.

Get a sneak peek at future deliveries by looking at the past

Curious to hear what might be in a box? Let's take a look at a previously-featured country, Taiwan. While Universal Yums doesn't spell out everything they've sent, they do reveal that their two most popular items in that box were the Choco Peanut Mochi and Pineapple Cake, and their "weirdest” inclusion was the Peach Jelly Shot. Again, because this isn't meant to be strictly candy, you shouldn't be surprised when the flavors in your box are peppery, savory, or something in addition to "sweet”.

Decent gift-giving tools

Gift-giving with Universal Yums is pretty solid. When checking out, you can indicate that your subscription is a gift and include a note with the first box. You also have the option to download and print out an "at-home gift note”; you can get to that feature through the FAQ, if you don't spot it in time during the checkout process. Scheduling, though, is a little less helpful: if you're gifting during the holidays, you can delay the shipment on your first box until December 8th. At other times of the year, there's no option for delayed sending, and the initial box will go out within one business day.

Subscribers have a love-hate relationship

All of this considered, we're still not able to give Universal Yums an unqualified recommendation. Why? It starts with the company's "F” rating from the Better Business Bureau. While there weren't hundreds and hundreds of complaints there (just 15 in the last year and 26 total over three years), it bothers us that the company failed to respond to 19 of those 26. That's not exactly what we'd call "great customer service”. We also noticed that reviewers on Trustpilot are pretty evenly split: 43% give Universal Yums a 5-star rating, while 38% give it the lowest possible 1-star score. Looks like you'll either love it or hate it here.

More than just snacks

Some people thoroughly enjoy all of the extras (learning about the country, getting little toys and non-food items, and so on), while others feel like some of those add-ons make the snacks themselves not worth what they're paying. And, despite promising no repeats, multiple customers said that over the course of a year, some of their snacks started to feel already-been-done (like getting multiple ketchup-flavored snacks, albeit from different countries).

Not exactly a candy club per se

And, of course, if we're looking at candy clubs, Universal Yums just doesn't stick to that theme. That's not a reason to fault them, of course: it's not what they're intending to do. But, if we're looking specifically at subscriptions of sweet treats, this membership doesn't 100% color within those lines.

Some room to improve

The most we can offer Universal Yums is a 2.5-star rating. While we personally would enjoy the around-the-world theming, it's not everyone's cup of tea. We don't love the company's failure to respond to complaints, and this club doesn't deliver the sweets-and-nothing-but experience many candy club shoppers are looking for.