Banana Split Baby Mama Drama from Mama’s Magic Mix

Photo from Mama’s Magic Mix website.
Click on the pic to go there.

Ingredients:

freeze dried bananas and strawberries, salted peanuts, caramel puffs & chocolate covered graham crackers

I received a pouch of this snack mix in my January Love with Food Box.

Tea Suggestion:

With this salty and sweet snack, I went with something light and crisp:  White Tea!  And one of my favorite White Teas as of late is this Makaibari Bai Mu Dan from Tea People.

What I Think:

This mix is not at all what I expected when I opened the package.  What I expected was granola, I suppose, although now that I read the package again I don’t know why it is that expected this to be granola because it doesn’t actually say granola anywhere on the package.

It’s a “mix” of dried fruit, nuts, crunchy graham cracker-y “cookie” like things that are coated with chocolate (although there were only 2 of these in the bag), and at the top of the pouch there were these “puffs” of sweetness that tasted a bit like a sweetened cereal.

I had about six of those tasty cereal puff things that sat right at the top of the package, and when I looked into the package when I first opened it, it appeared that these were the only thing in the package so I was surprised when I fished out a strawberry piece … and all the puffs were gone!  Had I known that there was more to the package than just those puffs I would have poured the mix into a bowl and saved some of those puffs for last because like I said, they were the tastiest part of this weird mix.

I enjoyed the individual ingredients of the mix.  The cereal puff things were tasty.  They were actually the tastiest part of this mix.  Then there was a layer of freeze dried strawberries and I liked those, as well as the three pieces of freeze dried banana.  The peanuts … were peanuts and they weren’t bad.  They weren’t really salty though, and I guess that’s what I missed there.  The chocolate coated cookie things were alright although they were a bit … lacking in something.

But overall, this … just seemed like a very disjointed sort of snack mix.  Nothing really seemed to work together.  Even the dried strawberries and bananas didn’t really seemed to work together and that always seems to be a classic fruit combination.  The peanuts just didn’t work in this.  I liked that the fruit was freeze dried because I do enjoy the light crispness of freeze dried fruit, but when combined with the peanuts and the other components … it just all seemed a bit like a jumbled mess.

My Final Thoughts:

This was alright.  It was edible.  Is this something I’d buy again?  No.  I found it to be a rather confusing combination of foods that didn’t really seem to go together at all.

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.

Orange Fruit Bar from Oskri

Photo from Love with Food.
Click on the pic to go there.

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.

Bananas Foster Snack from Graze

Ingredients:

fudge pieces, honey almond slivers, pumpkin seeds and banana coins

I received this Bananas Foster Snack in my December Graze Box.

Tea Suggestion:

For this yummy, sweet and salty snack, I decided to go with something that was both sweet and a little bit savory:  this Genmai Hojicha from Sara’s Tea Caddie.  The warm, toasty notes of the tea accentuated the nutty notes of the almond slivers and pumpkin seeds.  A really nice tea time!

What I Think:

This snack surprised me with the very first bite.  And with that first bite, I immediately clicked on the “like” box on my Graze products page.

I sort of mindlessly grabbed a few pieces out of the tray and popped them into my mouth … and the banana – is soft!  It’s a dried banana … but it isn’t a banana chip like I thought it would be.  It’s not hard, dense and crunchy like a typical banana chip.  This is soft and chewy and delightfully banana-y!

I love the sweet and salty quality of this snack, and the varying textures: the honey almond slivers and the pumpkin seeds add a little bit of crunch.  The fudge bits and the honey from the almonds add some sweetness.  The nuts add a salty taste.  The banana adds a great banana flavor and chew to the mix.  It was chewy, crunchy, salty, savory and sweet all in one bite!

My Final Thoughts:

The more I munched on this snack, the more I enjoyed it, and by the time I finished the snack, the “like” was upgraded to “love”!  I love the different textures and the way the flavors all work together in this snack.  Yum!

Apple Cosmo Snack from Graze

Photo from Graze.
Click on the pic to go there.

Ingredients:

lime infused raisins, cranberries and apple

I received a tray of this snack in my December Graze Box.

Tea Suggestion:

I enjoyed a glass of iced tea with this fruit snack from Graze.  And the tea that I had in my fridge this afternoon was this Strawberry Zabaglione Iced Tea from Southern Boy Teas.  The fruitiness of the tea together with the fruits – made for a very fruity afternoon!

What I Think:

A tasty snack.   The apples are soft and chewy and are pleasantly sweet.  The cranberries add some tartness, and the raisins taste more of lime than of raisin, but that’s quite alright with me.  It’s like eating a bright, tangy piece of lime but with the chewiness of a raisin.  Very unique.

The lime infused raisins are actually my favorite part of this snack.  I love how they just brighten it all up.  When eaten together, the three fruits taste a little bit sweet and a little bit tart leaning just this side of tart.  And while it is a little more tart than it is sweet, I’m not disappointed by this (and I usually am not too crazy about tart!) because I like the way each component in this snack complements the other ingredients.  It’s a really tasty medley of flavors.

My Final Thoughts:

I enjoyed this snack while it lasted, but, I am not sure if I liked it enough to “like” it on Graze.  Enjoyable, but, I’m still hoping for the fruit snack that just knocks my socks off from Graze.

Cherries & Berries Snack from Graze

Picture from Graze.
Click on the Pic to go there.

Ingredients:

cherries, lingonberries, cranberries and jumbo raisins

I received a tray of Cherries & Berries in my November Graze Box.

Tea Suggestion:

I decided to snack on these Cherries & Berries while sipping on this Qing Xiang Dong Ding Oolong from Teavivre.  The contrast of the juicy, tart berries and sweet cherries with the smooth, creamy sweetness of the tea was simply divine!

What I Think:

I wasn’t going to write up a review about this snack, because, you know … it’s dried fruit.  It’s got dried cherries, cranberries, raisins and tiny little lingonberries.

But, I really enjoyed this snack, so I decided to write about it.  I like the textures.  Some of the fruit is plump and juicy (yet dried), and some is slightly more sugary with a slightly more dry exterior.  The drier the fruit, the more sugary and “crunchy” the fruit is to the tooth.

It is sweet and tart and tasty.  The one thing I don’t like is the sometimes “oily” texture that I get from some of the fruits, but, it’s not enough to dissuade me from rating this snack with a “Like” … I’d like to receive this again.

My Final Thoughts:

I liked it, and I marked it “like” on my graze account.  I wouldn’t mind getting this again in the future.  I especially enjoyed the lingonberries which is a fruit I don’t usually find in dried fruit mixes or trail mixes, so that was a nice change of pace.

My November Graze Box has arrived!

Since I have my Graze box deliveries set up to come every four months (I’m an “occasional grazer”!), I think I’m fairly safe in identifying them as a monthly box.  I guess it could happen occasionally that I actually get two boxes in one month, but, I don’t foresee that happening in the near future.

Anyway, I have been really looking forward to the delivery of this box since I got my last box.  I really love these boxes!  The snacks are thoughtfully created, and they’re just the right size to satisfy that urge to snack but not so big that I feel like I’ve overindulged when I eat a snack.  And the best thing about this box from Graze is that I can rate each product on their website and your ratings will help them put together your future boxes, plus it should ensure that your favorite items will come back to you.  I really like that!

This month’s box brought some really tasty and tempting snacks to my mailbox:  a snack mix called “Hot Cross Yum”, “Salsa Fresca” which includes chips and salsa, “Cherries and Berries” which is a dried fruit blend, and some “Black Pepper Pistachios.”  I can’t wait to get started.  The hard part is going to be deciding WHERE to start!

I have more Friend Invitation Codes for Graze, so if you’re interested in signing up and trying out Graze for yourself, it’s very affordable!  It’s just $6 a month (no additional shipping charge!) to get four unique snacks that have been prepared with nutrition in mind.  It’s a great way to get some YUM and feel good about it too!  Please comment on this post if you want a friend code to sign up for Graze (signing up is by invitation only!) and I will be happy to share a code with you.  Please include your email in the comment so that I can email you back with the code!

Fruit & Seed Flapjack from Graze

Photo from Graze.
Click on the pic to go there.

Ingredients:

rolled oats, margarine (vegetable oil, water, salt), demerara sugar, apricots, dates, currants, raisins, sunflower seeds, golden syrup, pumpkin seeds (contains gluten)

I received these mini flapjack bars in my first Graze box.

Tea Suggestion:

Because these “flapjacks” remind me a bit of an energy bar, I decided to go with something invigorating to drink, and I chose this Vietnam Black Tea from Single Origin Teas.  I like the way the natural spice tones of the tea accent the fruit and seed notes of these snacks.  It was a really enjoyable tea time!

What I Think:

What I’m thinking is YUM!  These are essentially soft and chewy granola bars, loaded with toasted oats, raisins, apricots, dates, currants, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds.

The oats are a prominent flavor and they lend a nice toasty flavor to the bar.  The photo suggests more pumpkin seeds in these than I’m actually finding in my three bars (The tray comes with three small bars – about three or four bites worth, depending on how big your bite is).  I’m finding some pumpkin seeds in these, but I’m wishing there were more.  I definitely do taste the sunflower seeds, and the raisins.  I don’t taste a lot of dates, but, I do get a hint of apricot every now and then.

My Final Thoughts:

It’s sweet and fruity and it’s a little bit like a tasty oatmeal that I can take with me.  I’m not really crazy about the addition of margarine, I prefer butter.  I’m not really crazy about the “golden” syrup which implies additional sweetener.  These two additions don’t scream out “healthy” to me, although I’m sure that these are healthier than say, a commercially produced granola bar.  I like that they aren’t overly sticky (a sign to me that there’s too much sweetener in the bar.)  That said, these do seem to have less sugar and sweeteners than the commercially produced granola bar.  Tasty, I’m going to give these a “like.”

Billionaire’s Shortbread Snack Mix from Graze

Photo from Graze.
Click on the pic to go there.

Product Description:

fudge pieces, blanched almonds, milk chocolate drops and cranberries

I got this snack mix in my first Graze Box!

Tea Suggestion:

I went with a deliciously light, vibrant green tea to enjoy with this sweet “trail mix.”  The High Grade Dragon Well from Yezi Tea was an excellent choice.  The tea was refreshing and lightly grassy, and made a nice contrast to the sweet-tart cranberries.  The natural nutty flavors in the Dragon Well married deliciously with the blanched almonds, and the chocolate and fudge … well, they just made the tea time that much yummier!

What I Think:

I was so excited to start digging in to my snacks in my first Graze Box!  And of course the first snack I had to try has chocolate in it!

I was very interested in the Graze program when I first heard about it, mostly because I love trying gourmet foodie subscriptions like this, as well as the uniqueness of this particular program (You can’t get these mixes anywhere else … unless you make them yourself!) … but what else I really liked about this program was that the kind of snacks that it offers is exactly what I was looking for … something healthy to snack on while sipping on tea.  Because I drink a lot of tea.  A lot of it … and I like to find foods that are healthy and easy to snack on while I sip the tea.  Something tasty and preferably, something I didn’t have to make myself.  (Big bonus points for that one.)

This “trail mix” has four ingredients:  blanched almonds, dried cranberries, chocolate drops and fudge bits.  I would say that in my tray, all four ingredients were fairly represented.  I didn’t see like 75% of one ingredient, and scarce little bits of other ingredients.  

It’s a tasty combination of flavors.  When each item is eaten individually, the ingredient I like least is the blanched almonds, mostly because they’re blanched almonds, and I prefer my almonds toasted, roasted, salted … but not so much blanched.  Even so, these aren’t that bad, especially if I happen to scoop up one of the other ingredients and pop both the almond and one other ingredient in my mouth at the same time and allow the flavors to meld together.  My personal favorite with the almond is the cranberry.

But what’s really delightful is if I pick up one of each item in the mix and pop all four ingredients in my mouth at the same time. The combination of these four ingredients at the same time is quite tasty.

The cranberry is tart and chewy.  The fudge is sweet and chewy.  The chocolate is sweet and creamy.  The almond is nutty.  It’s a tasty combination of sweet, tart, chewy and nutty with a hint of creaminess.

My Final Thoughts:

I liked this alright, but I don’t know if I like it enough to “like” it on the Graze website.   But I ‘am glad I tried it.  I like the size of these snack trays!  This is just the right amount of trail mix to satisfy me when I’ve got the munchies … it works great as a tea-time snack.

Orange Dried Fruit Crisps from Simple & Crisp

Product Information:

These natural orange crisps from Seattle, Washington are a delicious cracker alternative. Orange slices add a burst of citrus to cheese plates, cocktails and craft beer. Pair with our favorite cheeses: Jasper Hill Cheddar, Willow Hill Autumn Oak and Cypress Grove Midnight Moon.

I received a package of these dried fruit crisps in my September Knoshbox.

Tea Suggestion:

I love the bright and complex flavor of these crisps!  I went with a chocolate-y tea to enjoy with them mostly because the idea of chocolate and orange really appealed to me at the time.  So I brewed up a cup of this Choco Nut Black Tea from the Ambessa Line from Harney & Sons.  It was indeed a deliciously decadent tea time!

What I Think: 

Wow!  These are amazing!

At first … I was … a little hesitant.  These are very thinly sliced pieces of orange that have been dried.  Peels and all!  I even see bits of seeds in some of these slices, and that just … seemed … weird.  But then I kept reading praises of these on Knoshbox’s facebook page so I decided to break open the package and give ’em a try.

And they’re really, really good!  They’re crispy, a little bit chewy, and even a little bit juicy once you bite into them.  I can feel that “burst” of juicy flavor – even if I don’t feel the juice itself – when I bite into the pulpy section of these crisps.

It’s a very bright and invigorating sort of taste on the palate … my palate seems “energized” when I eat these.  It is sweet, tart, and a little bit bitter.  A really interesting contrast when eaten on their own, these also made a nice “cracker” for cheese.

I didn’t try these with the above suggested cheeses.  Instead, I tried them first with a bit of room temperature goat cheese and found this to be a nice pairing.  The tangy quality of the goat cheese brought out not only the tangy notes of the orange, but also the sweetness.

My Final Thoughts:

I really enjoyed these.  I was skeptical at first just because … I wasn’t sure how I’d like the orange peels (well, specifically the pithy part), but they add a hint of bitterness to the bright citrus sweetness.  I really liked these with the goat cheese.