New year, new tasty treats in my mailbox. If you’re just joining us, Love With Food is a generally awesome monthly box that delivers new and interesting snacks directly to your doorstep. Based on your snacking desires, you can get a regular tasting box ($12/month for about 8 sample packs of snacks), a deluxe tasting box with twice as many (around 16), and a gluten-free option. I stick to the regular tasting box. An added benefit to subscribing to LWF is that they donate food and energy to feeding kids who are struggling with hunger. Who can’t get behind that?
Each box is (very) loosely based on a theme. This month’s theme is “Live. Laugh. Restore.” I think they should scrap the theme thing, it never makes any sense. Regardless, this box seems to focus on snacks that energize you, but I had to really struggle to figure that out because their box intro description is something about new year resolutions. I have no idea either.
I generally love Love With Food boxes because they send me snacks I’ve never had before. The idea folks over at LWF must be recovering from the holidays because this box seems to be a little on the weak side. A few of the items are great, but a couple are a little confusing. Then some are repeats from previous boxes, which I’m fine with because we’re talking snacks here, it’s not like they’re sending me a duplicate hat or something. I may get a little angsty because I am feeling particularly moody today and snacks are a deeply emotional topic for food lovers like myself.
Dark Chocolate Cacao Nibs (Britt) – We’ll start with the good. Chocolate covered cacao nibs! That’s pretty cool. Cacao nibs can be a little pricey, so I’m glad they included these in the box. In terms of “big ticket items” that everyone looks forward to in subscription boxes, this seems to be the one in this box. The package tells me that they traveled all the way from the Costa Rican rainforest, so I will honor their tireless journey by shoveling them into my mouth.
Somersaults (Somersault Snack Company) – LWF has sent somersaults before, but never savory ones. From what I can glean from the packaging, it looks like these are “cookies” made of seeds and grains. I’ll eat them.
Chocolate Dipped Coconut Mini (Luna) – This is probably the item I will enjoy the most in this box. I get ridiculously excited when LWF sends me anything sweet that I can pretend is a dessert. This bar is super mini (see the small truffle next to it for size) but I love anything covered in chocolate, especially when delicious coconut is involved.
Velvet Truffle (Alter Ego) – This truffle is organic and made with Peruvian chocolate. At least I think it’s Peruvian chocolate, the notes say “Puruvian” which is not a word I’m familiar with. Instead of looking it up to see if it is a real thing, I’m going to assume they meant Peruvian. I totally dig that this chocolate is 81% fair trade, but confused by what makes up the remaining 19%.
Cassava Pops (Wai Lana) – I might be over cassava chips. There was a time when I was totally into root vegetable chips (I blame the Whole Foods indoctrination I underwent a few years back), but I don’t find potatoes particularly offensive anymore. In fact, I kind of prefer them as the base of my snack chips. I don’t have to think about potato chips. I know they’re crap for me, there’s no smoke and mirrored denial that maybe the crispy chip that I’m consuming MIGHT have some health benefits to it. That said, I would probably just eat these chips and not think twice about it, but these aren’t even fried or baked. They’re popped. POPPED. Have you ever had popped chips? If you have, you know how gross they are. They are like mini rice cakes that aren’t even all that good for you. The popping factor now takes the small amount of joy that was left when you eliminated the potato and leaves you with a poofy crunchy flavorless slice of cardboard. Just give me my potato chips back. Ok, I’m done. Sorry.
Energy Kettle Cooked Apples (Big Slice) – Sigh. I expended so much energy complaining about popped cassava chips that I have almost none left for this weird little bag of apples I am holding. I’m pretty sure this is baby food.
In-Shell Almonds (Bobalu) – On a scale from 1-10 how much do you like almonds? Take a moment and think about this. Be honest with yourself. Close your eyes and really think about it – when was the last time you craved an almond? Not an almond cookie, or almond butter, but a plain raw, unsalted almond in its natural state. Now answer honestly. Maybe a 2? Possible a 3 if you are Gwyneth Paltrow? Now open your eyes and look at this picture. They sent me a bag of raw unsalted almonds STILL IN THEIR SHELL. I would have to work for these almonds. I have to chip my nail polish and pry open these hard ass shells to get the maybe 10 almonds that will ultimately be about a 2 on the enjoyment scale. The work to reward ratio on this snack is so off balance that this bag is going directly into the trash because there will never be a moment when I feel like I want to tackle the chore of de-shelling these things.
Breakfast in Paris Black Tea (Stash) – The icing on this disappointing snackycake is a single black tea bag. I’m so emotionally drained from the almonds and have to just move on now. I can’t. I just can’t.
I’m rating this box a C, despite my hatred of popped chips and shelled nuts. Love With Food has never really sent a totally disappointing box before, so they get a pass for this boring box. January has so far been a total bust for me as I have yet to enjoy any of the boxes I’ve received, so this just kind of fits into the trend. At least I didn’t hate it? I did hate those almonds though.
Snack on,
Jill