Degustabox | Summer Box

If you’ve not heard of Degustabox, then where have you been? It’s a food & drink monthly subscription box – bringing you 10-15 surprise products, many of 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 (much later than planned) what was in July’s box (themed a summer box)?

·         A bottle of Blossom Hill Spritz

·         A carton of Crafted fruit juice

·         A packet of Ryvita Thins three cheese

·         A packet of Rowntree’s Randoms 30% less sugar

·         Two pouches of Oloves olives

·         A pouch of Merchant Gourmet red & white quinoa

·         A bottle of Frylight cooking spray with avocado oil

·         A box of Weetabix Additions coconut & raisin

·         A jar of Maille Original Dijon mustard

Due to the exciting few months I have coming up, this will be my last Degustabox review. I know plenty of bloggers who receive the box for free in exchange of a blog post or unboxing video, but I’ve always paid for mine – and it’s an expense I can no longer commit to. With that in mind, I was SO disappointed with this month’s box and despite being a ‘summer box’, it really didn’t give me those summertime feels.

I’ll start with the drinks one last time and once again, there was alcohol in this month’s box. The bottle of Blossom Hill Spritz I received was flavoured with lemon & elderflower and does sound super summery... it’s just a shame by the time I’ll be open to this, summer will be long gone (as if it hasn’t already!). However, I enjoyed the mango & passion fruit juice by The Cracker Drinks Company – it was so refreshing, smooth and not too sweet. I don’t drink juice often but I would buy this again.

Over the last few months, there’s been plenty of cereals and granolas and this month saw the newest product from Weetabix: Additions coconut & raisin. I’d seen this and the other flavour (apple & raisin) in the supermarket and to be honest, the apple one would be more up my street. I did like this though, maybe not enough to buy it again – and ate them for breakfast with the addition (see what I did there?) of berries.

There were two savoury snacks in the form of Oloves olives (flavoured with chilli & oregano) and Ryvita Thins (three cheese). Oloves have featured before but I really dislike olives, so won’t be eating though – annoying that there are two pouches, as opposed to one. Ryvitas are a familiar brand in our house and I’ve bought from the Thins range before – because they are so much nicer than the original cardboard crispbreads. Of all the flavours on the shelves, I had yet to try the three cheese variety, but these are definitely my favourite! I’ve got a real problem with snacking at the moment, so these curb all those cravings I have. I’ll definitely buy these again, not just because they’re tasty, but they are so versatile.

The red & white quinoa from Gourmet Merchant sounds interesting and the microwavable pouch is perfect for convenience. I am yet to try it and have no idea of meal ideas, so if you have any suggestions, please let me know in the comments, or tweet me @Luuuce_x. I don’t eat mustard, so the jar of Maille Original Dijon mustard went straight to my mum. There’s currently a jar in the fridge, so I know she’ll use it. The recipe card suggests using it with steak, which I may find palatable. Similarly, Frylight is something she uses when cooking and we’ve got a couple of bottles of various oils in the cupboard – so this avocado oil is a welcome addition. I’ve been using it over the last couple of weeks and haven’t found it enhances the flavour of food like other oils, but it’s a handy product to have.

And finally, saving the best until last – Rowntree’s Randoms 30% less sugar. Anyone that knows me will know I have a sweet tooth and I love my sweets/pick n mix, so was really pleased to see this product included in July’s box. Despite containing less sugar, they taste exactly the same as original Randoms – and of course, all the shapes and flavours are the same. But still, you can’t go wrong!

So in all, as you can see, I wasn’t that impressed with this month’s box – which is a shame, as I hate writing negative reviews and on the whole, the products are generally very good. There’s no point me sharing my discount code now I have de-activated my account, but why not look back at previous reviews by using the Degustabox tag.

Love, Lucy xx

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