Review of the June 2017 Degustabox, a surprise box of food ordered by subscription
What is Degustabox?
Degustabox is a subscription food box that you receive monthly. Each month’s box comes to your door, filled with food products including snack items, sauces and condiments, sweet treats, mixes, drinks, pastas, and lots more. Each month is a complete surprise and Degustabox specializes in providing a mixed variety of products for you to try. The products are almost all full-sized packages, not sample sizes, which is totally great.
The June 2017 box contained ten food items, plus one extra sample item. All the products sent in this month’s box were something new for me (never having tried or eaten before) – so, all these new flavors to sample made it extra fun to try out all the goodies found inside the box! After trying out the majority of the products sent, here is my opinion along with my personal rating from 1 to 4 stars (4 being tops for yumminess!). If you are interested in subscribing to this box, see pricing and other information below the taste test — plus a half off discount offer for your first box.
Taste Test Report for the food products in the June 2017 Degustabox
Ratings: 4 stars = Super Yummy; 3 stars = Yummy; 2 stars = Meh; 1 star = Yucky
- OUR LITTLE REBELLION Bean Crisps : Flavor “Salt of the Earth” — This is a big 6 ounce bag of thin, crispy chips that are made from a mix of beans (green split pea, yellow split pea, black bean) plus corn, sunflower oil, and sea salt. A simple list of ingredients makes for a healthy tasting crisp with a flavor that reminds me a bit of Rice Cakes. The taste of these crisps is heavier on the salt taste than the flavor of the beans (the bean taste is actually hard to detect in these, they taste more strongly of the corn). A nice crunchy salt snack that I like quite a lot – if these weren’t so salty, it would really be hard to stop eating them. As it is, the more I eat these, the more I am liking them. (By the way, I looked at the website for this product and there are a couple of other flavors of these Bean Crisps that sound really yummy – “Cha-Cha Chili” and “Saucy Salsa”.) This product would be a solid 4 stars with a wee bit less salt – as it is though, I still liked this lots! *** ¾
- JULIAN’S RECIPE Waffle Thins with Quinoa : Flavor “Meyer Lemon” — 5-ounce bag of 1-1/2 inch round, crunchy waffle cookie wafers that taste of vanilla and lemon. Yum. I love lemon flavored treats, these are quite good. This product comes in several other flavors including sweet and savory – this lemon flavor is definitely on the sweet side, so I would describe these as yummy “little cookies”. ***
- RITZ Crisp & Thins : Flavor “Cream Cheese and Onion” — Degustabox sent two 1.7 ounce bags of these oven-baked “potato chips” – first ingredient in this product is “potato flour” (so these aren’t actually made from real sliced pieces of potato). These are very thin and light, slightly puffy crisps with a strong flavor of the cream cheese and onion. There is a slight bit of a chemical/artificial taste to these – and they are made from a long list of ingredients that doesn’t sound very healthy. These light snack crisps are actually pretty tasty (I quite like the onion-y flavor in them) but they seem pretty unhealthy, so I’m not sure if I would want to get this product again. That being said, they are actually pretty addictive — I have been starting to crave these. Pretty darn good flavor-wise! RATING: **** (for the taste of the product. I think I do want these again!); ** (for the lack of healthy ingredients in this product – promoting this, as it says on the bag, as “oven-baked, not fried” just doesn’t cut it for me).
- ENTENMANN’S Minis : Apple Snack Pies — This was a 12 ounce box that included six individually wrapped snack pies. Each pie is a small square (about 2 ½ inches) that is lightly glazed. Very sweet pie that reminds me of the Hostess fruit pies I enjoyed years ago when I was a kid. This one tastes more sweet though – actually, quite a bit more sweet. These are actually way, way over-the-top sweet! This product contains high fructose corn syrup (second on the list of ingredients), sugar, and evaporated apples. Fairly good, but way overladen with sugar (gave me a sugar rush after just one!). ** ½
- BIBIGO Go-Chu-Jang Barbecue Sauce — An 11.5 oz. bottle of Korean-style BBQ sauce that I found to be sweet tasting, with just a bit of spiciness/kick to it (not too much, just right!). We tried this as a sauce for meatloaf sandwiches and also burgers. Also used it to sauce some chicken grilled on the barbecue. This tasted great on everything – I really love this product and will purchase it again. I also like the packaging of this as it is a squeeze top condiment bottle that makes it easier to squeeze the sauce over your food (rather than pouring over your food and ending up with too much!). ****
- NAVITAS NATURALS “Superfood+ Maca Maple Bar” — This is a small, nutritious snack bar described on the label as “sweet & malty”. The product is crafted in small batches and contains “9 superfoods”. This tastes very healthy – and it’s yummy too. I’m really liking this tasty bar. I don’t know anything about Maca but the label tells us this “Maca: Inca warriors used to support endurance.” Okay, interesting. The bar is 180 calories, by the way. It’s a bit sweet; I think this would be a great as a “breakfast on the go”. By the way, this company offers three other Superfood bars in this product line, I would definitely be interested in trying. ****
- SIR KENSINGTON’S Classic Ketchup — A very small jar (1.8 ounce) of ketchup that is made from a pure list of ingredients, no baddies or junk of any kind! These would be the kind of ingredients you would have in homemade ketchup. So you know, this ketchup contains tomatoes, tomato paste, organic sugar, onions, distilled vinegar, salt, lime juice concentrate, green bell peppers, and allspice. I love french fries with ketchup, so I did a taste test with some fries dipped in this ketchup. I found this to have a very nice taste, strong on the vinegar, a little sweet – a high quality product. It is less sweet than my regular ketchup (Heinz) and, of course, tastes much more pure and natural. I think I should replace my Heinz with Sir Kensington’s! ****
- BROOKLYN ORGANICS Craft Ginger Ale : Flavor “Coconut” — An 8.4 ounce can of Ginger Ale, sweetened with “organic Stevia leaf extract”. Unfortunately, this product tastes very funky and odd. The sweetness tastes unnatural, the coconut flavor tastes very strange. This tastes like a can of some sort of chemical rather than a sweet fizzy drink. Pretty awful – and disappointing, as I am a big fan of Ginger Ales. Yuck. *
- BRIANNAS’ Homestyle “Creamy Cilantro Lime” Dressing — A 12 ounce bottle of salad dressing, this product is thick and creamy in texture and an appealing light/pale avocado green in color. As for flavor – this is absolutely delicious. I love it! The dressing has a tangy lime-garlic flavor with a bit of sweetness and just a touch of spice. I had this as a dressing for a salad and thought it made the salad super good. ****
- HODGSON MILL Gluten-Free Apple Cinnamon Muffin Mix — I haven’t used this mix yet, but it requires you to add milk, oil, sugar, and an egg to the mix to make your muffins. Just my opinion, but it seems like it would be almost as easy (and a lot healthier) to simply make muffins from scratch.
- VITER ENERGY Caffeinated Breath Mints : “Wintergreen Flavor” — This was a bonus sample gift included in the box. A sample pack of 3 sugar-free breath mints. These are meant to boost energy and freshen your breath at the same time, which sounds interesting.
Summary and Subscription Information : plus discount offer and bonus item for your first box:
With the exception of the absolutely horrible Ginger Ale, this was a pretty terrific box of food. So many products I loved and a nice variety of different types of things. The Sir Kensington’s ketchup is just a really tasty product made from real food ingredients. It has a very nice, natural flavor and is a quality product I will want to get again. I enjoyed the Our Little Rebellion bean crisps as a salty, crunchy snack (and I love salty, crunchy snacks!) – this is also something I will want to get again. And that Briannas’ dressing — yum, just so good. Just all sorts of stuff to like in this month’s box.
If you are interested in trying out a Degustabox for yourself, here’s the scoop : the box costs $19.99 a month and shipping is free. Degustabox is offered as a monthly subscription, so you will receive one box a month and will be surprised with 9 to 14 full-size goodies (both sweet and savory) in each month’s box. The total value of the products sent will exceed the cost of your box and you can unsubscribe whenever you like. The Degustabox USA box delivery is available for residents living in the 48 Contiguous United States.
Enjoy the Eats!
IMPORTANT NOTE: As of February 2019, the Degustabox subscription is being paused (no longer being offered) until further notice. We will be adding alternate food boxes for review soon!
Disclosure: I was sent this box for free in exchange for my honest review. I was not compensated for the review and all opinions are my own.
- Farmer’s Almanac Garden Guide : Peaches Recipe Contest - March 11, 2022
- Mooney Farms : Bella Sun Luci Annual Recipe Contest - March 8, 2022
- Weird Food Inventions and Strange Concoctions : Potato Chip Sandwich - February 24, 2022