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.

Hi I’m Skinny Minis

 

Product Information:

I’m a grain based snack packed
full of whole grains to bring you
a heart healthy treat.
I also have up to 40% less fat
than regular potato chips, YAY!!

I received a bag of these snacks in my January Love with Food Box.

Tea Suggestion:

As with most salty snacks like these, I like to drink iced tea!  And the iced tea that I have in my fridge is this Cherry Limeade Tea from Southern Boy Teas!   The tea is sweet, a little bit tart, and fruity while the snacks are crunchy and salty … and it made for a very enjoyable snack time!

What I Think:

These are interesting.  They look like straws.  They taste like corn chips, but without that dense texture of a corn chip.  These have a puffier, crunchy texture that reminds me of my favorite round onion flavored snack.  You know the snacks I’m talking about, right?  And that’s really cool, because, I think I might like the texture of those snacks as much as I like the flavor of them … maybe I like the texture just a little more than the flavor!

And I’m enjoying these.  Not just the crunchy, puffy texture, but also the sweet multi-grain taste.  There is a nice level of saltiness, and I love that they’re only 100 calories for this bag.  These are the kind of snacks that I can really enjoy because they’re not only tasty but they are guilt-free too.

My Final Thoughts:

I like these.  I’ll be on the look out the next time I’m shopping at Whole Foods or Chuck’s Produce.  I’d definitely pick up a bag if I found them in the store.  I’d be interested in trying their other flavors too, especially the sweet onion and the sweet potato flavors!

My January Graze Box has arrived!

And again … it’s not late!  I am!  This Graze box arrived a couple of days ago – within the month of January.  And really … because this box is set up on a 4 week cycle rather than a monthly delivery plan, so it’s all good.

And all four of these snacks in this month’s box look good!  I got a tray of fruity Mango Chutney with Black Pepper Dippers, an Herby Bread Basket tray, a Cookies and Cream tray, and Eleanor’s Apple Crumble.  These all sound really yummy.

I love how Graze seems to balance out the snacks too.  I have some savory selections and some sweet selections in each box.  So, no matter what mood I’m in, I can find something that will please the palate.

I have a couple more Friend Invitation codes for Graze if you’re interested in joining!  The cost is just $6 per box, and this covers shipping and you can customize your shipping options to have a box sent to you every 2 weeks or every 4 weeks.  Every snack tray has health benefits – these are thoughtfully curated boxes with nutritious snacks!

If you’re interested in obtaining a Friend Invitation Code, just comment on this post with your email and I’ll send you an email with the code!

My Thai Snack from Graze

Photo from Graze
Click on the pic to go there.

Product Information:

sweet chilli sauce with baked soy bites

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

Tea Suggestion:

I decided that iced tea seemed the ideal choice for this snack.  And since it’s a Thai inspired snack, I went with a lime flavored tea, specifically, this Key Lime Cheesecake flavored Iced Tea from Southern Boy Teas!  The tangy lime and cream cheese notes played perfectly with the spicy-sweet sauce in this snack.

What I Think: 

YUM!  After taking my first bite of this My Thai Snack from Graze, I immediately clicked on the “Love” button on the Graze website.  This snack is the perfect snack for me.   The whole snack tray is just 84 calories, too!

The baked soy ‘bites’ are little rounds that are thicker than a chip – they remind me of “tater tot rounds” which are about a third as tall as a typical tater tot.  These are about the same size as those tater tot rounds.  They are crispy and have a light texture to them.  They are lightly salty, and really, that’s mostly all you taste.  You get a little bit of salt and a whole lot of crunch … but no extraneous flavors to interfere with the delightful taste of the sweet and spicy sauce.

Then again, I’m not eating them without the sauce … so I can’t say with certainty that if I were to focus on the flavor of these soy bites that there wouldn’t be more that I could taste from them.  The sauce is just too amazing to not dip the soy bite into!

The sauce looks a bit like a jelly.  It is sweet and spicy, and there is a delicious balance between these two contrasting notes.  The sweet tastes a bit like a sugared sweetness … not really like honey or other sweetener.  The spiciness comes from the chili pepper (you can see the flakes throughout the sauce).  There is a slight vinegar-y tang to the sauce, and perhaps just a hint of garlic.  But mostly, what I taste is the sweetness and the spiciness of this sauce … and I love it.  I want a jar of this stuff.

My Final Thoughts:

LOVE!  This just may be my favorite snack that I’ve tried from Graze yet.  I’d be thrilled if they sent this my way every single month.  Oh!  And I didn’t let the extra sauce go to waste, either.  We had some chips in the pantry – Original Pringles – which are not as healthy a choice as the soy bites and did add to the calorie count of the snack (probably more calories than I care to know!), but I didn’t want to waste a single bit of this sauce.  I love it.  The chips tasted great with the sauce too.

My Graze Box for December has arrived!

And no that doesn’t mean that Graze is late.  It’s just the way my payment schedule has been set up.  This is not the “usual” subscription service, that charges your account on the same day each month, and you receive a box every month.  Graze ships your box every four weeks, charging your account before your box is put together and shipped.

I’m excited about this month’s box!  The snack trays that I received this month are:  Bananas Foster (which is a dried fruit and nut trail type mix), My Thai (baked soy “bites” with a sweet chili sauce), Apple Cosmo (a dried fruit mix), and Sour Cream & Onion Cashews (yum!)

I like how this box is set up:  two savory selections and two sweeter selections!  I can’t wait to dig in!

I have a couple more Friend Invitation codes for Graze if you’re interested in joining!  The cost is just $6 per box, and this covers shipping and you can customize your shipping options to have a box sent to you every 2 weeks or every 4 weeks.  Every snack tray has health benefits – these are thoughtfully curated boxes with nutritious snacks!

If you’re interested in obtaining a Friend Invitation Code, just comment on this post with your email and I’ll send you an email with the code!

Rosemary & Olive Oil Kettle Cooked Potato Chips from Deep River Snacks

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

Product Description:

These Deep River Snacks Rosemary & Olive Oil chips are delicious with various Belgian and German premium beers.

I received a bag of these potato chips in my September Knoshbox.

Tea Suggestion:

Because this month’s Knoshbox is all about “Perfect Pairings” I read the product card before tasting these chips and tried to choose a tea according to what the curators of the Knoshbox recommended.  For these chips, Knoshbox recommended Allagash White wheat beer from Maine because it has “balanced notes of coriander, orange peel and clove” … which does sound rather intriguing but, I’ve found even with the most intriguing sounding beer, when it comes right down to it, I’m often disappointed with a beer.  So, instead, I did a little investigation into my tea collection, and came up with this Market Chai African Redbush Tea from MarketSpice, and I brewed some of it to enjoy with these chips.  Nice!  There are delightful citrus notes, and warm notes from the cinnamon and ginger, and a pleasant nutty flavor from the nutmeg … and all the delicious flavors of the chai melded quite nicely with the flavors of potato, olive oil and rosemary.  A really delightful, spicy-sweet, savory treat!

What I Think:

These are really tasty … so tasty in fact, I found it difficult to stop munching on them long enough to start typing out my thoughts about them.  The bag is nearly gone now!

The potatoes have been slightly thick cut – these aren’t the thickest cut potato chips I’ve seen, but, they’re thicker than your average potato chip.  And they’ve been kettle cooked to give them that hearty crunch.

After they were cooked, they were flavored with rosemary and olive oil.  I like how these are flavored … nothing overwhelming.  I like the combination of the olive oil and rosemary.

Rosemary can be a very aggressive herb and take over the dish that it flavors, and because the description on Knoshbox’s website suggests a robust rosemary flavor, I thought that the herb might overpower the chip, but it is balanced nicely here.  I taste resin notes and notes of pine.  It’s a very pleasant flavor and I like the way the rosemary is presented here.

My Final Thoughts:

A delicious, savory chip, and even though I didn’t pair it with the beer they suggested, I found that the flavor profiles they described helped me immensely with the choosing of the tea suggestion for this snack.  I don’t usually choose a chai to drink with potato chips, but I’m glad I did today!

Cinnamon Crunch Corn Snacks from Cosmos Creations

Product Information:

Cinnamon has long been known for its healing qualities. We can’t think of any better therapy than our unique blend of cinnamon sugar-infused caramel. Craving the perfect recipe? This is sweet relief. Pure, natural ingredients combined to make a snack that’s deliciously addictive.

I received a bag of these yummy corn puffs in my September Love With Food box.

Tea Suggestion:

Since these have a delicious cinnamon-y taste to them, I wanted to go with a pure tea so that i could enjoy the cinnamon notes.  I decided on a tea with some natural cinnamon flavors to it, so I chose this Vietnam Black OP1 from Single Origin Teas.  I loved how well the tea complemented the corn snacks.  The cinnamon notes of the snack brought out the cinnamon-like flavors of the tea.  Really tasty!

What I Think:

Having enjoyed both the caramel and the salted caramel Cosmos Creations, I was fairly certain I’d enjoy the Cinnamon Crunch variety.

Sweet, warm with cinnamon, crunchy … I like that these are slightly less sweet than the caramel version as the cinnamon cuts through some of the sweetness.

As I’m eating these, though, I can’t help but imagining them in a bowl with milk and eating them like a cereal.  This flavor, especially, has a very “cereal-ish” quality to it.  That’s not meant to be a criticism or a praise … just an observation.

My Final Thoughts:

I like these.  I can definitely seeing myself buying more of these and fortunately, I have seen them in stores, so I won’t need to order them.

The Goodies Box for June!

Yeah, I’m way behind.  I’ve said it before, and here I am saying it again!  Fortunately, though, the Goodies Box is getting better with arriving in a timely manner.  June’s box arrived on the 27th of June and while it isn’t the biggest deal when the box arrives a day or two (and in some cases three or four!) days after the month is over, I like it when they get their act together and the box comes within the month it should arrive.

This month’s box seems to be all about snacking.  There were six products in this month’s box, including a full-sized tube of STAX Que Rico Adobadas Chips, which I’ve already tried.  These are pretty tasty.  They remind me a lot of Pringles, not just because of the nature of the packaging, but the chips themselves have the same texture and potato taste as Pringles snack chips.  That said, the flavoring of these chips is pretty unique, tasting like a cross between a spicy BBQ and a picante salsa flavor.  These definitely have some kick to them!

The Cheese flavored Pringles Sticks were also tasty.  These remind me a lot of “Cheese It” type crackers, except that they’re long, very slender sticks rather than square crackers.  They’re crunchy, cheesy, and a lot of fun to eat.

The other three products in June’s box include: a sampler package of Duchy Originals Highland Shortbread cookies, Cheddar Jalapeno Pasta Chips from Pastitas, a bottle of “Dream Water,” and Honey Dijon Roasted Seaweed Snacks from Gimme.  That last one is one that makes me a little nervous, because I am not a fan of seaweed.  I’ll try ’em, but I have a feeling I won’t be finishing ’em.  I guess we’ll see!

I can’t say that I’m overly enthused by the contents of this month’s box, although I am interested in trying the Pastitas chips because of their uniqueness factor, and the Dream Water holds some appeal as well.

One thing that I am a little disappointed with is that Goodies has stopped including a product card with their box.  Instead, we get a card that says:

For details about your Taster’s Box and to review or buy, visit http://www.goodies.co/box

This card also includes a promo code for those who want to subscribe without a waiting list.  (So if you want to subscribe without the waiting list – I wasn’t aware that there was a waiting list! – just be the first to comment on this review, include your email address, and I’ll email you with the promo code.  

But I preferred getting the product card that told me a little bit about each product.  This new card gives the box a much more “generic” sort of feel.

It’s still the best “bargain” tasting box that I’ve found … even if the products aren’t as gourmet as what I’d find with some of the other subscriptions I’ve tried.

My Love with Food Box is here!

Actually … it’s been here for a while.  I have been dealing with some personal issues, so I haven’t been writing a whole lot for my blog.  Sorry about the absence … but hopefully, I can get a few posts written and try to get caught up.  Who am I kidding … getting caught up at this point is a lost cause!  ha!  I’ll just roll with it.

I really am liking these little boxes from Love with Food.  I think I might keep these boxes going after my three month trial subscription expires.  I’ll see what next month’s box offers, and make a more definitive decision … but for now, I’m happy with what I’m getting from this company.

The International Delights product card … the same image appears on both sides … that’s the error. The other side usually has a list of the products in the box.

The theme for this month’s box is “International Delights” and what a delightful box it is.  Shortly after receiving the email notification that my box had shipped, I also received an email notification telling me that there was an error with the product card in the box.  Apparently the printer made an error with the printing of the card, and it wasn’t caught until it was too late, and the products were not actually listed on the box.

But that’s not a big deal.  The email listed the products that we received, and that’s good enough for me. I do enjoy the cards, but, they are certainly secondary to the food!  This month’s box includes:  Lightly Salted Plantain Chips from Turbana (which I’ve already consumed, and the review for them will publish tomorrow!), Almond Anise Biscotti from Biscotti di Suzi (Yum!), two tiny chocolates from New Tree (Cinnamon Milk Chocolate and Belgian Biscuit Dark Chocolate), Apple Strawberry Applesauce from GoGo Squeez, Firecracker Chocopod from Chuao Chocolatier (seriously, this is one of my favorite chocolates out there, I was so thrilled to see it in my box!), Shortbread Tea Cookies from Kyotofu (having tried some of their goodies before, I was very happy to find these in the box too), and finally Tiger Spice Chai from David Rio.  Yes… that’s right … TEA!  (PLUS tea shortbread cookies!)

Like I said, I am very happy with this box … this one has definitely won me over!  I couldn’t wait to start digging in … so like I said, I’ve already started in on the plantain chips!  Watch for that review tomorrow!  To learn more about Love With Food, click here.

Juicefuls Fruit Wave Snacks

Product Description:

Juicefuls fruit snacks are bursting with flavor, and we do mean that literally. The soft and chewy fruit bites with 100% fruit juice at the core erupt in your mouth, surprising your taste buds with the bright, refreshing flavor of real fruit.

I received a package of these fruit snacks in my October Goodies Box.

Tea Suggestion:

These are really quite sweet, so I suggest something that will help you offset the sweetness a bit – something that will help to balance the taste on the palate.  My choice is for a spicy chai served straight (that is, not a latte), because the sweetness of the fruit snacks and the spices of the chai offer interesting contrast!  Try this Indian Spiced Chai from Tealicious Tea Company!

What I Think:

These are a little different than what I was expecting… although, I am not sure exactly what I was expecting.  With a name like “Juicefuls” I was kind of expecting a juice burst when I bite into one of these … sort of like Freshen Up gum… remember that gum?  You’d bite into it, and there’s this burst of gel inside?  I think that was what immediately came to mind when I first read the name “Juicefuls” … and then I also expected the outer “shell” of the fruit snack to be a different texture, I expected it to be more of a firm gelatin type of texture.

Neither of these expectations were met.  On the plus side, the fruit snack “shell” is softer than I expected it to be, it is chewy and soft.  But there is no burst of juice or anything either.  It does have a softer center than the outer shell, but, it doesn’t feel like it’s full of juice or anything.

These are tasty enough, sure, but part of me feels like I should have followed my intuition and just given this package to my young daughter, because I think she’d have appreciated it more than I did.  They are fruity and sweet, and by the time you reach the end of the package, they almost seem too sweet.

My Final Thoughts:

These are alright.  I didn’t dislike them.  And, I might even buy more in the future, but they’d be for my daughter, not for me.  These are not my typical snack food – I’d much prefer to snack on fruit rather than fruit snacks.  Alright, but, a little too cloying after a while.