Jalapeño Fiesta Snack from Graze

Photo from Graze.
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Ingredients:

jalapeno peanuts, roasted sunflower seeds, salsa almonds and roasted pumpkin seeds

I received this snack in my February Graze box.

Tea Suggestion:

I suggest an iced tea with this selection, and have plenty on hand because it’s a spicy snack!  You’ll want to refresh the palate!  When I opened this tray, I had this Whisky & Cola Iced Tea from Southern Boy Teas chilling in my fridge!  A nice way to cool the tongue after eating one of those jalapeño peanuts!

What I Think:

Spicy!  The peanuts have been seasoned with “jalapeño” flavoring (although the ingredient list says that it’s cayenne, I don’t see jalapeño in the complete ingredient list), and there are quite a few peanuts in this snack mix.  The almonds have been seasoned with a “salsa” flavoring, and while there are far fewer almonds in this mix, there are enough here to amp up the zesty flavor of the mix.

There are also sunflower seeds and pumpkin seed kernels in this mix, and they aren’t flavored except with a bit of soy sauce.  They need a little salt.  Yeah, I know soy sauce has a salty flavor to it, but, I would prefer a light salting over a soy sauce coating.

My Final Thoughts:

Overall, I didn’t hate this this nutty snack mix.  I don’t know that I enjoyed it enough to “like” it on my graze account.  It’s tasty enough, but I felt as though it really could have used more salt.  I’m not usually one who needs a lot of salt on things (unlike my husband who likes a little bit of food with his salt, it seems!) but this would have been better if it was a little saltier.  Because of this, I chose to “trash” this snack.  I didn’t hate it, but, I didn’t want to receive it again either.  I like the spicy elements, but I wanted a little more contrast.  Maybe some acid (how about lime seasoned pumpkin seeds?), and definitely some more salt.

Original Jer’s Square & Pretzo Chango-O Jer’s Square

I received both of these squares from Jer’s in my January Love with Food box.

Original Jer’s Square Information:

Jer’s Original Squares are crafted with all natural Valencia peanut butter mixed with crunchy rice crisp covered in premium milk chocolate. Now, you can have Jer’s Squares 4 oz. boxes on hand at work, at home, or on the go! That’s what we call “out of the box” thinking!

My Thoughts:

This is yummy!

The peanut butter center is lightened up with the crackly crunch of rice crisp.  The chocolate is sweet and creamy, the peanut butter is too, but there is enough “salty” to it to give it a nice savory quality and to cut through some of the sweet.  I’d take these over a peanut butter cup any day!

Pretzo Chang-O Jer’s Square Information:

Pretzo Change-O Milk Chocolate squares are crafted with sweet and salty pretzel bits mixed with all natural Valencia peanut butter covered in milk chocolate. These 4 oz. boxes are great for sharing, putting into a candy dish at your house or office, or stashed away for that quick fix when needed. After all, that’s how we’re able to pack big flavor into such a little package.

My Thoughts:

The Pretzo Chango-O is also a milk chocolate candy.  Instead of the crispy rice in the original square … this has salty pretzel bits which adds more salt to the treat.  The center is a little denser than the original was because of the pretzel bits, and it’s crunchier.  But I love the additional salty notes to this square.  Of the two, this one was my favorite, but I loved them both! This is truly a salty-sweet treat!

My Final Thoughts:

I want more of these!  That is all.

Summer Berry Flapjack Snack from Graze

Photo from Graze.
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What’s In It:

rustic rolled oat flapjack with berry-infused cranberries

I received these Flapjack snack bars in my February box from Graze.

Tea Suggestion:

Since these oat bars have a very ‘breakfast-y’ snack sort of taste to them, I went with a black tea, this Australian Daintree Black Tea from McIver’s.   I love the way the rich, molasses-y sort of flavor melds with the flapjack snack!

What I Think:

I like the flapjack snacks from Graze.  In my post about my February box, I mentioned that they’re kind of like granola bars … well, they are … and they aren’t.  They have a granola bar look to them, and some similar ingredients to a granola bar, but the taste and texture reminds me more of a bowl of oatmeal that has been converted to convenient bar form.

The oats tastes sweet and nutty.  It has a rustic, hearty taste and texture to it.  I don’t eat oatmeal made from rolled oats often, because I prefer steel cut oats, but, I like the flavor of rolled oats in granola bars, oatmeal cookies and these.

And after mentioning oatmeal cookies … these not only remind me of a bowl of oatmeal, but a thick, soft oatmeal cookie but without the sweet dough.  It’s like it has all the goodness of an oatmeal cookie without the stuff that you shouldn’t be eating.

The berries in this are cranberries that have been infused with other berry flavors.  I definitely taste cranberry … do I taste the other berries?  Yeah, I think I taste notes of strawberry, perhaps, and maybe blueberry.

My Final Thoughts:

I “liked” this snack.  It’s really yummy and satisfying.  Like I said previously, it’s a little bit like a bowl of berry studded oatmeal in bar form.

Apple-2-The-Core Dried Fruit from Peeled Snacks

Product Description:

Peeled snack’s Apple-2-the-core are one of our favorite healthy snacks to eat on the go. Stash a bag in your purse or car for healthy snacking at any time. These dried apples are organic, gently dried and all natural- no sugar added.

I received a pouch of these snacks in my January Box from Knoshy.

Tea Suggestion:

I think that these tasty pieces of dried apple would taste good with just about any tea, but I wanted to choose a pure tea so that the flavoring wouldn’t compete with the flavor of the apple.  I chose this Hoji Cha Gold from Kyoto Obubu Tea Plantation, and I loved how the nutty, sweet flavor of the tea complemented the sweet flavor of the apple.  A really nice pairing!

What I Think: 

After having tried the Pine-4-Pineapple from Peeled Snacks, I was fairly certain I’d enjoy this dried apple snack from Peeled Snacks.  And I do!

The apple has been sliced and they’re fairly thick slices so I get lots of apple-y flavor in every bite.  These aren’t like the crisped apple chips that you can find in just about any grocery store these days (I like those too though!)  These are softer and chewier, and the way these have been crafted allow for a lot of true-to-the-fruit flavor.

That is to say that this tastes like apple.  It doesn’t taste like sugar.  It doesn’t taste like cinnamon or caramel or anything else (not that there’s anything wrong with cinnamon or caramel … love ’em!)  These snacks have one ingredient:

Organic Apples.

Nice ingredient list!

My Final Thoughts:

I really like these dried apples.  I love the texture:  soft and chewy!  I love the sweet taste, and there’s just a hint of tartness to them too.  I love how the drying process has concentrated the flavor of the apple so I’m just getting APPLE in every single bite.  There’s only one thing I don’t like about these snacks … I don’t like that the pouch is now gone.

My February Graze Box is Here!

Again, it’s not late, it arrived on the 26th, I’m just a little late at posting about it because I’m behind on all my posts!

This month, I got an exciting box that appears to be more sweet than savory (hey, it IS February, it should be a little sweeter for Valentine’s Day, right?)  On the savory side, I got Jalepeño Fiesta which is a nut and seed mix.  I got three sweet selections this time around:  Summer Berry Flapjacks (flapjacks = soft and chewy granola bar), Coco Paradise (berries, coconut and chocolate!), and a trail mix-y type of combo called Key Lime Pie (Yum!)

This has become one of my favorite monthly boxes, because I love these snacks!  They are unusual and thoughtfully created.  The flavors are there, and there’s just enough “snack” in each tray to curb that hungry feeling when I feel like snacking.  And you can’t beat the price:  $6 per box!  You can set up your “grazing” for every 2 weeks or every 4 weeks (mine is set up for every four weeks), and you can even choose between the nibble box (this is what I get) or the calorie counter box which is more dieter friendly.

What I really like about this box is that if you like a snack, then you can rate it “like” and this snack will be sent to you again in the future.  If you LOVE a snack,  you can rate it “love” and this will be sent to you more often than a liked product.  Or … if you really just don’t like something, you can rate it “trash” and it won’t be sent to you.  I rated a couple of items as trash that I was pretty certain I wouldn’t care for (stuff with seaweed, I’m not big on seaweed), and if I come across a product that I don’t like, I can always trash it and be assured that I won’t get it again in the future.

Are you interested in getting in on Graze?  I have one more friend code available – if you want it, please just comment on this blog post with your email address and I’ll send you the code via private email!

Orange Fruit Bar from Oskri

Photo from Love with Food.
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Product Information:

The Oskri All – Natural and Gluten – Free Orange Fruit bar is the perfect refreshing snack on the – go.

I received this Orange Bar in my January Love with Food box.

Tea Suggestion:

To go with this orange bar, I decided to go with a green tea and I brewed up this Organic Long Jing from Steepster.  I loved the tea and liked the bar … I don’t know if this would be a “perfect pairing” or not but I enjoyed tea time.

What I Think:

This is a really unusual fruit bar, but I am enjoying it.

Most of the reviews on Love With Food that I saw were kind of negative about this product.

I liked it though.  It has a bright orange flavor, and I can taste and feel the dates, raisins and figs in this too.  I feel the texture of these dried fruits … and taste the sweetness from them.

There are also dried bits of orange in this, and it presents a somewhat hard, almost ‘crunchy’ chunk in the bar.  At first, I was kind of put off by this, but, after a couple of bites, I started to enjoy this element of the bar, and it reminds me a little bit of the Orange Crisps from Simple and Crisp.

My Final Thoughts:  

Definitely different, but I didn’t hate it.  I actually liked it after I became accustomed to the textures that are in the bar.  It’s a different taste, a different texture, but it’s bright and has a really vibrant flavor.

Eleanor’s Apple Crumble Snack from Graze

Photo from Graze.
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What’s In It:

raisins, cinnamon and honey almonds and apple

This snack was in my January Graze Box.

Tea Suggestion:

When I’m eating a “crumble” … I can think of no tea I’d rather have in front of me than a black tea … perhaps a warmly spiced chai?  So I chose to brew this Bourbon Chai from Vintage TeaWorks.  It’s honeyed sweetness melded wonderfully with the sweet flavors of this mix, and the spices accentuated the warm cinnamon notes of the almond.  This tea turned this snack into a dessert!

What I Think:

This is pretty good, but perhaps I’m a little spoiled on some of the previous fruit snacks that I’ve had from Graze previously, because I found myself wanting the flavor infused raisins that I’ve tried before.

The almonds are definitely my favorite part of this snack.  They are “candied” with honey and cinnamon, and that candied coating is absolutely scrumptious!

The apples and raisins are sweet.  The raisins are nice and plump golden raisins.   The apples are dried and chewy, and have a delicious, juicy taste to them.

My favorite way to enjoy this snack is to grab either a raisin or a piece of apple and eat it with an almond so that I get fruity goodness along with that delicious candied almond.  I wish there were more almonds to this!

My Final Thoughts:  

I enjoyed this snack (especially with the chai that I brewed to go with),  but I found myself wanting something a little more.  The candied almonds were delightful, but, everything else – while tasty – missed some of that excitement that I have experienced with the other snacks from Graze.  I didn’t “trash” this product, but, I didn’t like or love it either, I’ll keep it at a “try” status.

My February Box from Knoshy is Here!

My box from Knoshy actually arrived a few days ago.  This month’s theme is “Movie Night” and while I love the theme … some of the items in the box are curious choices for the theme.  I can see the connection with two of the items … the other two have left me wondering!

The first item that makes sense to me:  Parmesan & Rosemary flavored Microwave Popcorn from Quinn Popcorn.  I mean, who doesn’t want popcorn when watching a movie?  I’ve tried the Vermont Maple & Sea Salt Popcorn from this company, so I was really excited to try this flavor.

The second item that makes sense:  Pop Corn Pop chocolate bar from Chuao Chocolate.  Again … popcorn!  And of course, a candy bar is always a welcome treat at the movies!  I’ve tried at least one or two flavors from Chuao Chocolatier, and they are the producers of one of my very favorite chocolate bars (the firecracker bar!) so I’m thrilled to be able to try something else from them.

The next item in the box is a Basket o’ Marionberries from Willamette Valley Confectionery.  Now, don’t get me wrong – I LOVE these things.  I’ve tried them before, and I was thrilled to find them in my box this month, but, what do they have to do with Movie Night?  I guess candy is something yummy to eat at the movies?  I don’t really get a clear connection, but I’m happy to be have these yummy confections again, so I’m not complaining.

The last item in this month’s box is a “footlong” marshmallow from Quin Candy.  The flavor of the marshmallow is Water Avenue Coffee – meh.  OK.  I’m not a fan of coffee, and I don’t get how a coffee flavored marshmallow has any connection with Movie Night at all.  After perusing the Quin Candy website (I love that this company is LOCAL!) I found a couple of candies that would be more in keeping with the Movie Night Theme, like perhaps Cherry Cola Gumdrops (soft drink at the movies?  Yes!  Coffee at the movies?  No!)  or how about Popcorn Caramels?  (Yeah, it would be probably really beating the popcorn thing into the ground.)

Oh well, I like hand crafted marshmallows, so I’ll give ’em a try.  A coffee flavored marshmallow should be tasty in a hot chocolate, right?  And I’m really excited about the other products in this month’s box!

Coconut Mint Milk Chocolate Bar from Theo

Product Information:

What do you get when toasted coconut and mint are combined with organic 45 percent milk chocolate? A cool, sweet tropical breeze in chocolate form! This limited seasonal release is one of our favorite bars to enjoy during the holidays.

I received this chocolate bar in my December box from Knoshy.

Tea Suggestion:

I wanted to go with a pure, unflavored tea so that nothing would compete with the flavors of the bar.  And because this is milk chocolate, I thought that a black tea might be a bit too strong, so I opted for a creamy green tea like this Magical Mao Jian Green Tea from Teasenz.  The tea is light and crisp and doesn’t attempt to interfere with the delicious chocolate, coconut and mint flavors … instead, the light, buttery note seems to complement these notes.  Nice!

What I Think:

Oh my goodness … I love this chocolate bar.

I love chocolate.  That’s no big secret by now.  Usually I prefer dark chocolate to milk chocolate … but, this is so good, and I think that the creaminess of the milk chocolate works in the confections favor.  The creaminess of the milk chocolate melds beautifully with the coconut.

And while I thought at first that coconut and mint were kind of a “weird” flavor combination, those thoughts vanished with my first bite.  Oh wow!  So good!

The coconut adds a delicious coconut-y flavor and texture.  The mint is cool and refreshing.  Together the mint, coconut and chocolate create the perfect marriage of flavors.

My Final Thoughts:

I am in love with this chocolate bar.

Cookies & Cream Snack from Graze

Ingredients:

mini chocolate cookies, roasted hazels, white chocolate buttons and sunflower seeds

I received this snack in my January Graze Box.

Tea Suggestion:

This was a yummy tea time snack with a cup of single estate black tea like this Lovers Leap Estate Indigo from Eden Grove.  The tea is a flavorful Ceylon and the rich flavor complemented the tasty Cookies & Cream concept of this snack.

What I Think:

This is a tasty “trail mix” like snack that is different from any trail mix that I’ve ever tasted.

First, you have tiny little crunchy chocolate cookies that are quite yummy on their own, but also tasty when you eat them with any of the other ingredients too.  They’re crunchy and sweet, but not too dense or hard.  Quite delightful to pop in the mouth and eat … a box of these would be gone in short time, so it’s a good thing that I have a limited quantity in front of me.

Then there are nickle-sized discs of white chocolate.  Creamy and yummy.  White chocolate is not my favorite way to eat chocolate, but, I like these little discs and they add a tasty “creamy” element to the cookies & cream idea behind this snack.

There are lots of sunflower kernels to this snack and that’s quite alright with me.  I don’t know that I’ve ever eaten a cookie with sunflower seed kernels in them … but, I like the crunchy, nutty sweetness that these seeds bring to the “party.”

There are even a few hazelnuts, and these are a nice addition too.  Crunchy and delicious, I love to eat one and then pop one of the cookies in my mouth, it’s a tasty flavor combination.

Neither the hazelnuts nor the sunflower kernels were particularly salty, and I found myself wishing that there was a bit more salt factor to this sweet snack because I love the combination of salty and sweet.

My Final Thoughts:

I “liked” this one.   It’s not my favorite snack from Graze, but, I enjoyed it enough to want to have it again on occasion.