Quite a mixed selection in August’s Degustabox – a monthly food subscription service featuring a range of different full sized food and drink products. Essentially (if you’ve not read my reviews for previous months!) you pay £12.99 per month (which includes delivery), and have a box full of goodies sent to your door on around the 25th of the month. What I love about the service is that every box is a surprise: you have no idea what it’s going to contain until it arrives…
This month, we had an exciting combination of drinks, snacks, baked goods, baking ingredients and more, as you’ll see from the image below…
The first item that we tried, embarrassingly, was the booze. The Caribbean Twist Strawberry Daiquiri is a 750ml bottle of pre-mixed cocktail – and the first thing that amazed us was the vibrancy of its colour! Sadly, it didn’t really appeal to us, as it was very sweet and a little sickly – even the lime flavour was sweet rather than tangy. A shame.
We were also provided with two Fever Tree drinks: a Fever Tree Tonic Water and a Fever Tree Ginger Beer. We’re currently lacking on the gin front, so the tonic water will have to wait…but the ginger beer was fantastic, with a clean, natural and fiery flavour that is as good on its own as in a cocktail.
Continuing the drinks theme, the August Degustabox also included a carton of Cawston Press Kids’ Blend Apple & Pear. We’ve tried other Cawston Press products in previous boxes, and absolutely loved them. This one is aimed at children, the pressed juice blended with 40% water for a lighter drink. For me as an adult it was too light, but I can see how this would be great for children.
The final drink included in the box was a bottle of BerryWhite’s Peach & Goji Berry drink: a definite winner, and one that I’ll be looking to buy. There’s a little sediment at the bottom, so be sure to shake slightly before opening. You get an instant whiff of peach as you open the bottle, and this is the flavour that carries through when you drink it: it’s lovely and refreshing, and very delicate too. Although it contains white tea extract, it’s also caffeine-free. I’ll definitely be trying some of their other flavours.
Anyone who knows me will know my addiction to Lindt chocolate, so it was great to see a Lindt HELLO Just For You Heart Chocolate Tin nestled in the bottom of the box. Containing 10 solid milk chocolate hearts, these would make a great gift for someone you love – we just ate them ourselves, though!
The Brioche Pasquier Pains Au Lait and Brioche Pasquier Pains Au Chocolat were a lovely addition. Containing no preservatives or hydrogenated fats, both products are still baked using the original methods that were employed when the company was founded in 1936. The Pains Au Lait are great for filling with your choice of filling (or dunking in coffee!), while the Pains Au Chocolat are lovely and buttery with a rich chocolate filling.
We were also provided with two different Schwartz Flavour Shots: one Mexican Fajita, one Spanish Smoked Paprika Chicken. We’ve not used either yet, but are confident (based on having tried a number of the other varieties) that they’ll be great!
Next up, a large pack of Mexican Dave’s Lightly Salted Tortilla Chips – we tried the Nacho Cheese version in our March Degustabox and loved how natural the flavour was. The Lightly Salted variety also use no MSG, artificial colours or artificial flavourings: just cornflour, sunflower oil and salt. They’re incredibly moreish, but a little more than “lightly” salted in our eyes…
Dr Oetker is a brand that is commonly featured in the monthly Degustaboxes, but the product that we were sent this time around was quite novel! I’d never seen the Dr Oetker Edible Cupcake Cases before, but they’re a great idea: a pack of six edible wafer cases that mean you can bake your cupcakes on a flat baking tray rather than needing a muffin tray – and you can eat the whole lot without needing to remove a paper case! Some baking time needed soon, I think…
Also, new to Degustabox for August was the addition of the “Degustabox Fridge”, whereby the team supply you with vouchers to pick up full size chilled products. This month, we had a voucher for Moma! Bircher Muesli, which we’ve not redeemed yet but are excited to try – we love other products from their range and this looks like a great grab and go breakfast option.
As always, a great selection of products, with some that we’re more likely to use sooner than others – but that’s the way things go when you’re sent a parcel of surprises! To find out more about Degustabox, visit their website, find them on Facebook or follow them on Twitter.
Please note: this box was received free of charge, but in no way impacted on our opinion. We were not obliged to write a positive review, and the company did not see this review before it was put up on the site.