In March 2017 I moved to my own flat. Doing so gave me the perfect opportunity to try a Degustabox, which is a monthly subscription box that contains a vast range of food and drink products. Most of the products are “completely new to the market.”

One day I was browsing my Facebook when I saw an offer that allowed me to buy my first Degustabox for £5.99 (it costs £12.99 a month or £35.97 for three months or £71.94 for six months thereafter) so I took advantage of the offer and received my box a week later. When you sign up for a Degustabox you can choose what options you would like and what you won’t like. For example I chose not to receive any alcoholic drinks or spicy food because I’m not a fan of these products. I also opted for vegetarian products (although I’m not vegetarian, I was interested in seeing what products they had to offer).

Upon opening the box I received the following products that I’m going to review individually :

Cadbury Dairy Milk Oreo with Mint and Peanut Butter

Before I received my Degustabox, I had already tried these bars (there is also an original variety that I have also tried). While the mint one is my favourite since I am a big mint chocolate lover, the peanut butter one was okay but I found the flavour to be a little too sweet for my liking.

Whitworths Full of Super Cacao Raw Bars (pack of 2)

The concept of these bars reminded me of that of Nakd bars. These bars are packed with ‘superfoods’ such as almonds, chia seeds, quinoa and acai berries although the most prominent flavour for me was coconut. The bars were quite chewy as well.

Weetabix on The Go Breakfast Drinks  – Blueberry and Blackberry (with protein) and Vanilla

While I have tried the vanilla flavour, which tastes like UHT extra long life milk in my book, before receiving my box, I tried the blueberry and blackberry one and it had a lovely fruity flavour.

Heinz [Seriously Good] Creamy Pepper Sauce

There were two varieties of Heinz [Seriously Good] on offer in the March 2017 Degustabox: the Creamy Tomato and Garlic variety and the Creamy Pepper variety. Although I would have preferred the former (I eventually purchased it in Morrisons alongside the Creamy Chive variant priced at £1.68 each) I received the latter. While its flavour was a little too peppery for my tastes, I still enjoyed it on some steak.

The Jelly Bean Factory Gourmet Jelly Beans

These reminded me very much of Jelly Belly beans. The best thing about these beans is that they have 100% natural flavours and are fair trade. I liked the majority of flavours but I picked out the liquorice ones because I don’t like liquorice.

Pipers Crisp Co. Burrow Hill Cider Vinegar and Sea Salt Crisps

While these crisps are reminiscent of other brands such as Tyrells and Kettle Chips, they were just as good. They had a tangy cider vinegar flavour followed by the sea salt aftertaste.

£Onepounders Chocolate Eclairs

£Onepounders is a brand of sweets that is ubiquitous in newsagents and off licences. These may have tasted like your everyday standard chocolate eclairs but they were still tasty.

Rebel Kitchen Dairy Free Chocolate Milk

Despite the “dairy free” part of the label initially putting me off since I don’t like soya milk, I took a closer look at the packaging and it said it was made with coconut milk, which I prefer to soya milk. The drink had equal hints of chocolate and coconut but I wasn’t too keen on the lumpy texture I was met with when I nearly finished it.

Naturelly Jelly Juice – Apple and Blackcurrant Flavour

This is another product I had tried before receiving my Degustabox because I had previously bought it alongside other flavours at the Love Natural Love You health and beauty show at the Kensington Olympia last summer. Although the packaging design is misleading in terms of having a blackberry instead of blackcurrants, this still had a pleasantly refreshing fruity taste.

Gusto Organic Lemon Energy Drink

Even though I hadn’t drunk any energy drinks for a while, I liked the citrus and herbal notes of this drink.

Maldon Smoked Sea Salt Crystals

While I don’t normally add salt to my food I was still keen on giving this a try. I initially had no idea what to do with this salt besides using it to flavour certain meats but the first thing I made with it was a sauce where its other ingredients consisted of tomato ketchup, mayonnaise and garlic granules (see below) and it was delicious. I even added this salt to mashed sweet potato.

Overall despite having tried the Cadbury Dairy Milk Oreo bars, the vanilla Weetabix On the Go Breakfast Drink and the Naturelly Jelly Juice before receiving my first Degustabox, I was satisfied with what I received on the whole and I look forward to receiving subsequent boxes in the future.

I have also made an unboxing and review video of the March 2017 Degustabox on my YouTube channel and I have elaborated more on some points in the video in this blog post.

If you would like to try the Degustabox why not sign up here: https://www.degustabox.com/en/