This month’s box consisted of the following:
Snatt’s Mediterranean Snack Garlic and Parsley
I love bread snacks that have garlic and herb flavours, so I was very willing to give this a try. The snacks had the perfect ratio of garlic and parsley with a slight salty hint while I loved their crispy texture. One way I ate these was with falafel, cucumber, humous and garlic and herb sauce – they were great dipped into the latter two items.
Rating: 9/10
Upbeat Juicy Protein Water Blood Orange & Mandarin
I didn’t like this after only one sip, so sadly the rest of it went straight down the sink. The box came with a flyer that promoted the whole Upbeat Protein Water range and gave Amazon UK customers 15% off the range on the website. I might try the other flavours from Sainsbury’s, Holland & Barrett or WH Smith first to see if I like them and if I do, I would consider repurchasing them from Amazon.
Rating (for the Blood Orange & Mandarin variety): 0/10
Cadbury Boost Protein
The original Cadbury Boost is not one of their bars I buy very often, but I was initially intrigued when I saw the protein version in this month’s box. When I tried it, the protein crispies inside had an unusual taste (like other protein products I have tried including the Upbeat Juicy Protein Water) that is hard to describe. I liked the chewiness of the caramel, the powdery texture of the centre and the smoothness of the chocolate, but all were overpowered by the indescribable taste of the protein crispies.
Rating: 6/10
Maille Mustard with Honey and Tartare Sauce with Shallot
Maille is a brand I’d heard of before receiving this month’s box. Their Mustard with Honey sounds very interesting because it reminds me of honey mustard dressing – likewise with their Tartare Sauce with Shallot because I’ve never heard of shallot in tartare sauce before.
I tried the tartare sauce with some fish fingers, chips and baked beans and it tasted like the sauce that McDonald’s put in their Big Macs. It certainly tastes different from any other tartare sauce I have ever tried.
Upon trying a teaspoon of the Mustard with Honey, it was a little bit hot with a subtle hint of honey. I tried mixing another teaspoon of it with some reduced fat salad cream and wholewheat pasta (which may sound like an unusual combination, but I decided to give it a go anyway because I was feeling very tired and lightheaded that day after a late night, I didn’t feel like cooking anything else and it was World Pasta Day anyway) with grated cheese and crispy onions on top and the salad cream made it taste a bit milder. I also added some to mushroom stroganoff as a substitute for the wholegrain mustard that the recipe stated and the stroganoff still turned out perfectly.
The tartare sauce and mustard came with some recipes that are worth trying.
Ratings: Tartare Sauce with Shallot: 10/10, Mustard with Honey: 7/10 (on its own), 8/10 (when mixed with salad cream and mushroom stroganoff)
Growers Garden The Farmers Collective Broccoli Crisps with Cheese
I already love cheese and broccoli combinations such as that in Bachelor’s Pasta and Sauce for example. The Broccoli Crisps with Cheese made me think of the broccoli chips I saw in a Life with Beans vlog where they try vegan snacks although the broccoli chips they try are actually dried broccoli florets. The ones that came in the box looked like other kinds of lower fat crisps such as Popchips and they had a slight tint of green to them from the broccoli. They had a realistic cheese taste and aroma despite them being vegan and they had a somewhat bitter taste to them to begin with. This is one of the most interesting savoury snacks I have ever tried and I would definitely consider repurchasing these. Luckily two shops I might be able to find them in that are pretty close to me are Earth Natural Food in Kentish Town and Selfridges in Oxford Street, but you can search for stockists near you at https://growers-garden.com/stockists/.
Rating: 8/10
Pip’s Real Hot Chocolate Coins Classic
I love a good mug of hot chocolate, especially in this colder weather. Pip’s is a fairly new brand that was established in Wales in 2015 and they produce chocolate coins (not the foil-wrapped kind) that can be melted into milk in order to make hot chocolate. I received the Classic variety and melted it into 200ml of skimmed milk. The chocolate had a rich taste, but it tasted a little burnt too maybe because I burnt it a bit whilst melting it in the milk. One thing that confuses me about the hot chocolate coin is that it says it is vegan, but it may contain milk traces.
Rating: 7.5/10
Amy’s Kitchen hearty organic rustic Italian vegetable soup
Amy’s Kitchen has an interesting back story to it. The brand was founded in 1987, the year I was born, by Rachel and Andy Berliner when their daughter Amy was born that same year. This soup definitely lived up to the hearty part of its name and it was very chunky, especially with the inclusion of chickpeas. I added some sweetcorn to this soup as I needed to use it up and I ate it with some oven baked ciabatta with butter. Although the soup had a slight taste of washing up liquid, I liked its texture and its more prominent rich taste.
Rating: 8/10
Tick Tock Wellbeing Bounce Tea
I love herbal teas, especially peppermint, and I’ve heard of Tick Tock Tea before I found it in the box. Even though the packaging was slightly damaged (this must have been an ongoing issue since DHL took over from DPD with delivering my Degusta Boxes), I like the vintage style packaging design. The main ingredients of this tea are lemongrass, ginger, cinnamon and green roobios. I was sceptical about the green roobios at first because I don’t like the taste of green tea and I am accustomed to the taste of red roobios, but when I tried it the flavour was better than I expected because it tasted like a slightly less intense version of Twinings Lemon and Ginger tea. Like peppermint tea, this was very refreshing.
Rating: 8/10
Whitworths Shots Chocolate and Hazelnut
I have already tried the Berry and White Chocolate variety of Whitworths Shots that I like very much. The Chocolate and Hazelnut version is just as delicious in its own unique way with raisins thrown into the mix alongside the titular ingredients.
Rating: 8/10
Teisseire Gourmet Drops Vanilla and Chocolate
These remind me of the coffee equivalent to Robinsons Squash’d. I tried both varieties of Teisseire Gourmet Drops in instant decaffeinated coffee and I was indifferent with either. With the first one or two drops of the chocolate version, it wasn’t chocolatey enough for my liking, so I added more, but unfortunately it gave my coffee this strange overly sweet taste. I could barely taste the vanilla flavour in the coffee at all.
Rating (for both varieties): 5/10
Clarks Original Maple Syrup
I can fondly remember having maple syrup on my pancakes (as well as golden syrup) when I was a child, so I decided to try this syrup on my pancakes along with some sliced banana (most of the banana slices are between the pancakes). The syrup tasted just like the way I expected it would – rich, sweet and aromatic. I must admit that I do prefer golden syrup, but the maple syrup was a pleasing addition to my box.
Rating: 8/10
Overall, despite not having to take anything to my local food bank as all products seemed promising at first, I was slightly less satisfied with the October 2019 Degusta Box as opposed to the previous month’s box. The products I liked the most were the Snatt’s Mediterranean Snack, Maille Mustard with Honey when mixed with salad cream, the Maille Tartare Sauce with Shallot, the Growers Garden Broccoli Crisps with Cheese, the Amy’s Kitchen soup, the Tick Tock tea, the Clarks Maple Syrup and the Whitworths Shots Chocolate and Hazelnut
Overall rating (including the extra rating for the mustard): 92.5/130
Degusta Box U.K. website: https://www.degustabox.com/en/
Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored blog post. All opinions expressed are my own.
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