As the end of the month arrived, so did my latest Degustabox. No matter how many of these I receive, I still get excited when I start opening the box as you never know what will be nestling inside. As always, this month was a nice mixture of tried-and-loved brands as well as many products I'd never even heard of, let alone sampled !
So here's this month's selection. (Can you guess what the first thing to attract everyone's attention was? Yep, the Pick Up bars !)
Little Miracles - This was what appealed to me most when I opened the box because I loved the name and was intrigued to see what it would be. Little Miracles are a blend of organic tea and fruit juice with ginseng and açaí for a natural boost. They are sweetened with agave so contain less than 90 calories and they're free from artificial colours, flavours and sweeteners. I'm not a big fan of the taste of tea, but the fruity flavours of the green tea with pomegranate and ginger and lemongrass tea with orange juice and ginger were actually very palatable.
Little Miracles - This was what appealed to me most when I opened the box because I loved the name and was intrigued to see what it would be. Little Miracles are a blend of organic tea and fruit juice with ginseng and açaí for a natural boost. They are sweetened with agave so contain less than 90 calories and they're free from artificial colours, flavours and sweeteners. I'm not a big fan of the taste of tea, but the fruity flavours of the green tea with pomegranate and ginger and lemongrass tea with orange juice and ginger were actually very palatable.
Jordans Simply Granola - Jordans have gone back to basics with their latest offering which is just crunchy baked oats with a hint of honey. You can either eat it as it is, in tray bakes and flapjacks or with milk or yogurt, or try your hand as a mixologist and add whatever you like to it, using it as a blank canvas for the perfect bespoke granola !
Bahlsen Pick Ups - Last year, we reviewed Bahlsen Pick Up biscuits and were very impressed by how thick the chocolate is. As well as the Milk Chocolate ones that we'd already tried and loved, we discovered new Black ‘N White Pick Ups, which are a thick bar of delicious white chocolate in between two cocoa biscuits.Think Oreo's with a white chocolate hit - yum !
Carnation Cook With It! - Basically a low calorie alternative to cream in savoury dishes, it can be used in anything from carbonara to curries, quiches and soups. It contains 68% less fat than single cream which is great news if you're watching your waistline !
Burts Lentil Waves - Basically crisps made from lentils - a concept that had the kids turning up their noses, until their first taste, when they were declared delicious ! They come in three flavours : Sour Cream & Chive, Thai Sweet Chilli and Lightly Salted. 454 calories per 100g so a 20g bag is only 99 calories and they taste less greasy and salty than regular potato chips.
Righteous Salad Dressings - I got very excited about these. How many times do you decide to have a healthy, low calorie and low fat salad for lunch, then kill it by smothering it in ultra unhealthy salad dressing?! Righteous use only 100% natural ingredients, no additives, preservatives or thickeners, or anything that you wouldn’t expect to find in your own kitchen and are the Number 1 selling brand of Sauces for Whole Foods Market in the UK. There were three 50ml packs to sample in the Degustabox - Mild English Blue Cheese & Cider Dressing (54 calories per 15ml serving), Raspberry & Sweet Basil Dressing (49 calories per 15ml), Lemon & Mustard Seed Dressing (68 calories per 15ml). That's quite heavy on the calories, but they do also have an oil-free Caper & Hot Peppercorn Dressing which is only 8 calories per serving.
La Vieja Fabrica Marmalade - There were two versions of the Degustabox this month, one with Righteous Salad Dressings and one with Marmalade, but as a blogger, I got to try both ! I must admit, I'm not a huge fan of marmalade but this one wasn't too eye-wateringly bitter ! Rather nice with butter on a slice of toast as a mid afternoon snack.
Bahlsen Pick Ups - Last year, we reviewed Bahlsen Pick Up biscuits and were very impressed by how thick the chocolate is. As well as the Milk Chocolate ones that we'd already tried and loved, we discovered new Black ‘N White Pick Ups, which are a thick bar of delicious white chocolate in between two cocoa biscuits.Think Oreo's with a white chocolate hit - yum !
Carnation Cook With It! - Basically a low calorie alternative to cream in savoury dishes, it can be used in anything from carbonara to curries, quiches and soups. It contains 68% less fat than single cream which is great news if you're watching your waistline !
Burts Lentil Waves - Basically crisps made from lentils - a concept that had the kids turning up their noses, until their first taste, when they were declared delicious ! They come in three flavours : Sour Cream & Chive, Thai Sweet Chilli and Lightly Salted. 454 calories per 100g so a 20g bag is only 99 calories and they taste less greasy and salty than regular potato chips.
Righteous Salad Dressings - I got very excited about these. How many times do you decide to have a healthy, low calorie and low fat salad for lunch, then kill it by smothering it in ultra unhealthy salad dressing?! Righteous use only 100% natural ingredients, no additives, preservatives or thickeners, or anything that you wouldn’t expect to find in your own kitchen and are the Number 1 selling brand of Sauces for Whole Foods Market in the UK. There were three 50ml packs to sample in the Degustabox - Mild English Blue Cheese & Cider Dressing (54 calories per 15ml serving), Raspberry & Sweet Basil Dressing (49 calories per 15ml), Lemon & Mustard Seed Dressing (68 calories per 15ml). That's quite heavy on the calories, but they do also have an oil-free Caper & Hot Peppercorn Dressing which is only 8 calories per serving.
La Vieja Fabrica Marmalade - There were two versions of the Degustabox this month, one with Righteous Salad Dressings and one with Marmalade, but as a blogger, I got to try both ! I must admit, I'm not a huge fan of marmalade but this one wasn't too eye-wateringly bitter ! Rather nice with butter on a slice of toast as a mid afternoon snack.
Elizabeth Shaw’s Dark Chocolate Mint Thins - Delicate layers of quality 55% Dark Chocolate infused with a sumptuous mint flavour, luxuriously decorated with crunchy mint sprinkles. What's not to like? Definitely far too good to share with the kids ! Only 29 calories per thin too, which makes them a guilt-free treat ... IF you manage to stop at one !
Crabbie’s Traditional Cloudy Lemonade with a twist of Ginger - I loved the sound of this and decided to make it extra special by trying out the mocktail recipe on the Crabbies website for John Crabbies's CLASSIC Cooler : 60 ml John Crabbie's Traditional Cloudy Lemonade with a twist of ginger, 60 ml cherry juice, Splash of freshly squeezed lemon juice, 60 ml pomegranate juice, Lemon wedge for garnish
Place the cherry juice, pomegranate juice, cloudy lemonade and lemon juice in a tall glass. Stir the ingredients with a spoon to combine them. Add crushed ice to the glass. Garnish the drink with a lemon slice.
A lovely fruity drink with a slightly fiery kick for any designated drivers to enjoy - particularly perfect for Christmas parties ?
If you'd opted for the alcoholic version of the Degustabox subscription, you would have got a bottle of Crabbie’s Alcoholic Fruits instead (again, I got both). It's a delicious new range of fruity flavours (with no ginger!) made with up to 10% natural fruit juice and an alcohol content of 4% volume. They come in three flavours : Black Cherry, Zesty Lemon and Raspberry and Rhubarb. I got the Zesty Lemon one and it was lovely, reminding me of Hooch (which is what I used to drink all the time when we went pubbing, before the kids !).
Crabbie’s Traditional Cloudy Lemonade with a twist of Ginger - I loved the sound of this and decided to make it extra special by trying out the mocktail recipe on the Crabbies website for John Crabbies's CLASSIC Cooler : 60 ml John Crabbie's Traditional Cloudy Lemonade with a twist of ginger, 60 ml cherry juice, Splash of freshly squeezed lemon juice, 60 ml pomegranate juice, Lemon wedge for garnish
Place the cherry juice, pomegranate juice, cloudy lemonade and lemon juice in a tall glass. Stir the ingredients with a spoon to combine them. Add crushed ice to the glass. Garnish the drink with a lemon slice.
A lovely fruity drink with a slightly fiery kick for any designated drivers to enjoy - particularly perfect for Christmas parties ?
If you'd opted for the alcoholic version of the Degustabox subscription, you would have got a bottle of Crabbie’s Alcoholic Fruits instead (again, I got both). It's a delicious new range of fruity flavours (with no ginger!) made with up to 10% natural fruit juice and an alcohol content of 4% volume. They come in three flavours : Black Cherry, Zesty Lemon and Raspberry and Rhubarb. I got the Zesty Lemon one and it was lovely, reminding me of Hooch (which is what I used to drink all the time when we went pubbing, before the kids !).
This month's suggested recipes were for Bircher Muesli Green Tea and Jordans Simply Granola. I'll get experimenting myself too, especially with the Carnation Cook With It! The rest of the products in this month's box were more things to be enjoyed as they are, rather than be used as ingredients. Our favourites were the Burt's Lentil Waves, the chocolate (mint thins and Pick Ups) and the Crabbie's Alcoholic Fruits.
A Degustabox subscription costs £12.99 per month, delivery included, and they guarantee that the value of the products will be at least that, and often a lot more. As usual I have a discount coupon code for you, which gives you a £3.00 discount when registering. (I just need to check the code so I'll update asap)
for more information :
http://bit.ly/DBhomepage - website
http://bit.ly/DBUKfacebook - Facebook
http://bit.ly/DBUKTwitter - twitter
Disclosure : I received a free box in order to write an honest review.
Other blogposts you may be interested in :
That sounds like my kind of box! I have tried the Sour Cream & Chive & Thai Sweet Chilli Lentil Waves before, found them delicious.
ReplyDeleteThe Lentil waves look interesting!
ReplyDelete