Towards the end of April the latest edition of
Degustabox* was delivered to my door. I’m a little bit late in getting my post up this month and admittedly, with the chaos of birthdays, bank holidays and a mostly empty house not all of the products have been sampled at this point.
Nevertheless I’ve popped together this post so you can see what was included in April’s box with some mini reviews of the products I’ve tried so far.
First up we have a new variety of muesli from Dorset Cereals (£4.89). This is the “American Roadtrip” flavour from their Ultimate Adventures collection and is made up of cranberries, almonds and orange zest. This is packed full of flavour and utterly delicious. The perfect start to a Spring morning- preferably with a large dollop of natural yoghurt.
Hemp seed hearts from Good Hemp are one of the products I haven’t tried yet. They are described as delicious, nutty super seeds which are packed with protein, fibre and omega 3. They are nut and gluten free and perfectly for sprinkling over all manner of sweet and savoury dishes. They have an RRP of £4.49 and are currently available from Ocado and www.goodhempfood.com.
On the whole I’m not a big fan of crisps but I do rather like these lattice crisps from Seabrook- sliced both ways to hold maximum flavour these sea salt and black pepper snacks are completely addictive and pack a powerful punch. RRP £1.50-£1.99.
I can’t eat peanuts myself so the hot chilli peanuts from ViPnuts are currently another un-sampled product. These claim to be deliciously hot with a real kick of heat. They cost £1.25 for a very jazzy looking bag and also come in an intriguing sounding Hot Toffee flavour.
As a fan of grapefruit paired with gin (thanks to hoxton gin) I was very happy to see a pink grapefruit flavoured tonic water from Fentiman’s in this month’s box. I don’t have all of the product information for this so I can’t provide an RRP or stockists, but I can say that it is gorgeous with both gin and vodka. One for summer parties!
There was also a bottle of CELIA organic lager in the drinks section of the April box. This is 100% organic and brewed using just three ingredients- Moravian malt, 100% locally sourced (local to Czech) organic Saaz hops and sand-filtered water from the Żatec foothills. It’s gluten free too with an RRP of £2.49 per bottle.
I’ve tried Nothing But snacks before and enjoyed them very much. These are snack packs of freeze-dried fruits or vegetables that are suitable for vegetarians, vegans and those on a gluten free diet. I wasn’t wild about freeze dried grapes but the rest of the fruits are lovely and because they are dried rather than baked or fried the only things the fruit loses during the process is water.
Whitworths full of super range featured in a Degustabox a few months ago and I really enjoyed the Cacao raw bar and was keen to track down other flavours. This month I received the vanilla maca-roons variety which is crammed full of almonds, coconut and flax seeds and I think, that even though I don’t usually like almond flavoured things these might just be a new favourite snack. They cost £1.50 and are suitable for vegetarians as well as being gluten and soya free.
I haven’t yet tried the Garofalo whole wheat penne pasta that came in this month’s box but it sounds pretty fancy! Made with unprocessed whole organic durum wheat the pasta has all of it’s natural bran, germ, fibre, vitamins and minerals intact making it extra healthy. It only takes 11 minutes to cook too. £2.19 per bag and available from Amazon, Ocado and local stockists.
Last but not least we have a couple of sweet treats. Firstly a pot of sugar free polos (£1.49) which I’ve been working my way through. I’ve always had a soft spot for polo mints and these are ultra refreshing and kind to teeth. The pot format is a new look, designed to be taken on the go. Definitely a handbag must have for me and far less prone to getting crushed than the traditional tube packaging.
I was really excited to try the quinoa, smoked tea and vanilla chocolate by Doisy & Dam (£1.75) as I’ve heard amazing things about the brand and their 8 unique flavours. I can’t quite find the right words to describe how this tastes but it is truly, and quite oddly delicious. My next mission is to seek out the rest of the range to see what other crazy combinations of chocolate flavouring exist!
For those who don’t know Degustabox is a monthly subscription box filled with 10-15 food/drink products, most of which are brand new to the market so it’s a great way to try things out. On a month by month basis the box costs £12.99 (with a discount for longer subscriptions) but the contents are generally worth far more than this.
If you’re persuaded to give Degustabox a go (and really, you should) you can claim a brilliant £7.00 off of your first box (making it just £5.99!) by
entering the code 6HZJ8 at the checkout. It’s been a pleasure to work with the brand regularly over the last couple of years and it’s without a doubt something that I will continue to purchase long after our partnership ends. I love the monthly surprise and excitement as well as the chance to discover products I’d otherwise pass up on the supermarket shelves.
Let me know if you’ve tried any of these products and what you thought of them.
