Degustabox | Healthy New Year

Apologies for the delay on this post, I’ve had so much going on lately that blogging had to take a back seat. I’m confident that I’m back and will be posting three times a week, so expect the January box soon... especially as the February one arrives on Wednesday!

If you’ve not heard of Degustabox, then where have you been? It’s a food & drink monthly subscription box – bringing you 9-14 surprise products, many which are new to the market. When you sign up, you get to fill in your very own profile, meaning a couple of the products may differ. It’s actually the highlight of my week when this little beauty arrives on my doorstep – so what was in December’s box?

·         Two bags of Hip Pops

·         Two packets of Betavivo cereal

·         Two packets of Nothing But fruit snacks

·         A packet of Fabulous Bakers mango & pineapple flapjacks

·         A jar of Barilla Mediterranean vegetable pasta sauce

·         A box of Barilla wholewheat fusilli pasta

·         A carton of Koko dairy-free milk

·         A bottle of Crabbies light ginger beer

·         A mini bottle of Red Square toffee vodka

·         A packet of Compete Energy lemon bites

·         A bottle of Love Kombucha/Tree Vitalise

I’ll start with the negative – my box arrived badly damaged. The Love Kombucha drink had leaked over everything and there’s a really strong fermented vinegar smell. After a quick email to the Degustabox customer service team, I was re-sent the box free of charge – fair play Degusta! Obviously I didn’t get to sample the drink I should have received, but got a bottle of the Tree Vitalise birch water with mint, which was absolutely incredible. It reminded me of those new olive leaf drinks which seem to be the latest health craze – I loved it!

Compete are a brand that have featured in Degustabox before (September box review here) and I wasn’t sure about the mocha bites, even though they tasted a bit like chocolate brownie. I wasn’t keen at all on the lemon bites – they had a really strong caffeine taste. However, I did like the Fabulous Bakers flapjacks – especially as they were individually wrapped. The combination of mango and pineapple was good and unlike other products, they weren’t too sweet.  The Nothing But freeze-dried fruit was also enjoyable and I definitely preferred the strawberry and banana bag. This would have been great in a smoothie, as an alternative to snacking. Each bag only contains naturally occurring sugars and is one of your five a day, making it guilt-free.

Another product I’ve tried before is the Koko dairy-free milk (Healthy box review here) and it’s something I’ve bought countless times since – it’s perfect for those morning smoothies or oats. A litre carton is enough to last me a week. When I think Red Square, I think that cheap and nasty vodka we drank at uni, but this toffee equivalent had me pleasantly surprised. I had mine with diet coke en route to football, but I’d love to buy it again to make an espresso martini with a twist. The final drink in this month’s box was the Crabbies alcoholic ginger beer. I’m not a fan as I find it quite spicy, but I’m sure my parents will enjoy that!

Within my two boxes, I was lucky enough to sample three flavours of the Hip Pops: cheese & onion, barbecue and sweet chilli. I’d say they’re very similar to Pop Chips, neither better nor worse. But at £1 a bag, I’d be more inclined to purchase from a competitor.

The little sachets of Betavivo cereal were so cute and were great with milk and berries, as well as a yogurt topper. I even blitzed some in a smoothie to replace my usual oats. The oat-based cereal is an excellent alternative to porridge or weetabix.

The Degustabox product of the month was a selection of Italian goodies by Barilla – a box of wholewheat fusilli and a jar of Mediterranean vegetable pasta sauce. I rarely have pasta sauce, especially jar ones, but I enjoyed this. Mum cooked for us all and we had some cubes of Christmas ham to the sauce – but it could equally be made with chicken. I only eat wholewheat pasta so the two boxes should last me a while!

There was also a free gift in this month’s box – a sachet of Drink Me Chai. Again, it’s something I’ve tried before. The light equivalent is only 42kcal and I enjoyed mine at work with a Nakd fruit & nut bar.

Did you know you could try a box for half price by clicking this link?  

What were your thoughts on the December box?
 

Love, Lucy xx