Tuesday, 10 March 2015

Food review: Graze variety box I have been interested in trying Graze for a while now and a few weeks ago I finally took the plunge and ordered a trial variety box. The idea of healthy snacks arriving conveniently in the post seems fantastic on paper, but is it really as good as it sounds?

After trying Graze, my main issue with the concept was the lack of control when picking what to receive. They have a wealth of tasty snacks on the website, but rather than picking which ones I wanted, I had to sort them all (which is a lot of work) by 'bin', 'try', 'like', 'love' and 'send soon', from which the company will try to match my wishes as close as possible. Fun if you like a surprise, but inconvenient if you know what you want, because even selecting 'send soon' means you don't necessarily get it straight away.

I also though that for the amount of snacks you get in a single box the full price of £3.99 is simply too much. Yes, the box is packaged well (each snack wrapped in its own little plastic container) and the price includes postage too(so I do understand where it comes from, but for four bite-sized punnets of food, it is unfortunately too expensive to treat myself to on a regular basis.

Now for the most important bit, my thoughts on the snacks I received:

• The Graze Brownie – This was the one I was most looking forward to but it was unfortunately my least favourite. It was small, dry (no gooeyness within) and lacked the brownie's iconic crunchy top. Bin.

• Deconstructed Carrot Cake – I love Graze's idea of deconstructing cakes and the combination of flavours in this instance definitely resembled a carrot cake. Though the pieces of dried fruit and nuts combined to quite a dense and dry texture, making this experiment a bit underwhelming. Try.

• Smoky BBQ Corn – I didn't remember seeing this on the website and it's not something I would normally buy but I loved this one. It has some fantastic flavours and crunchiness, and I was sad when I'd finished the punnet. Like.

• Marvellous Macaron – Just like the deconstructed carrot cake, this snack punnet contained individual ingredients that once combined should taste like the real deal. In this case the 'macaron' was made up of almond slivers, amaretti drops, coconut flakes and white chocolate buttons. It sounds plain and simple but it is soooo good. By far my favourite and I would happily receive this one again! Love.

Overall I really like the idea of Graze and I was reasonably satisfied with what I received. However, the fact that I can not select exactly what snacks I get, combined with the steep price, means I will likely only order this again as a rare special treat to myself and/or at a discount.
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