The Nom Box: #7

It’s Graze Box time!  Or I should say it was last week, I’m a little behind so please forgive me for not telling you about the delicious box that this company knocked out of the park for me.  I’ve grown used to having at least one cube that I end up throwing out after a slight nibble, so to have an entire box of snacks that were not only more healthy than my than my preferred method of snacking, that usually is contained in packaging with extra artificial color and flavoring, to have it also taste better was such a relief.

This time they really went with more of the mix idea overall with 3 out of 4 cubes being various seeds and nuts, but they also included my favorite snack of all a flapjack.  There is truly something magical soft and chewy rolled oat bars.  This week was the summer berry flapjack which was the traditional flapjack but with the added pop of berry infused cranberries.  As soon as I read cranberry I kind of got upset because the cranberry has such a strong flavor already, with a really harsh zing.  These cranberries, however, were seriously pumped with a massive flavor of strawberry and raspberry.  It was a perfect pop of freshness when compared to the warming flavor of the oats.  Please feel free to keep those flapjacks coming!

Next up was the pear tartin, a combination of pear, raspberry, cranberries, yogurt coated seeds and almonds.  The real hero in this mix were the seeds that carried the tart flavors of the berry while fighting the blandness of the almonds, proving that it’s not about size but more about flavor.  The surprise had to be the pear, despite the chewy soft texture it still managed to be flavorful.  There is just something about dehydrated fruit that just doesn’t gel with me.

Then there was the savory member of the bunch, the Brooklyn Bites.  The mix was composed of poppy seed pretzels, cheese cashews and roasted pumpkin seeds.  After all of the sweetness in the box it was nice to have something cut through the sugar, unfortunately what this mix needed was salt.  Graze box is trying to be healthy and I respect that, but damn it sometimes you just want salt.  Now as for what it did have, the poppy seed pretzels were well done, but I have no idea what the poppy actually did for the flavor.  There wasn’t really much different to a plain pretzel, still perhaps my pallet needs more sophistication…  Now the cheese cashews where definitely not lacking in flavor, but the cashews have a naturally sweet kind of finish which seemed to combat the hints of cheddar, think sweetened stale Cheetos.  The pumpkin seeds where the nice strong finisher in the mix, but that’s probably because they weren’t over dressed with failed flavors.

The last cube was the apple crumble.  This mix was more semi soft and chewy apples, raisins (because every freaking mix needs them), and honey cinnamon almonds.  Now there is no love loss at all with the apples, for god sake the texture still baffles me.  The really confusing part was the almonds.  They were thickly coated in honey and then dusted with just a touch of cinnamon, which generally sounds amazing but then you go to eat it and it’s a chewy sticky mess in your mouth.  Kind of a letdown, but there has been a lot worse.


Through it all, still a stellar selection of snacks that delighted me.  I can only hope that the great team at Graze box can keep up the great work.

Nom Box #5!

Once again the mailman waltzed in with my bi-weekly delivery, the Graze Box! The wonderful program that lets you sample 4 super yummy smart snacking selections.  So, what’s in the box this time?

First up was the “Hot Cross Yum.”  The Hot Cross Yum was a mixture of orange raisins, sponge pieces, and cinnamon honey almonds.  Now the sweet tooth in me was completely happy with this.  However, deconstructing it made me start to reconsider whether I really was getting something that I loved, perhaps this was a momentary infatuation.  The sponge pieces were the same from the jelly doughnut mix in the last box, and I was happy to see them because the bite of the orange raisins was pretty intense.  The almonds were a sad disappointment, the honey was painted just painted on too thick and drowned out the cinnamon and the crunch the mix needed.

After that was the Apple Cosmo, a mix of apples, cranberries and lime raisins.  These people love raisins don’t they?  So this was pretty disappointing, the apples especially.  The apples were those partially dehydrated fruit slices that can have a paper like texture… Not so tasty.  What I did like though was the fresh zing of the raisins.  That made a refreshing save to this trendy little mix.

Third out of the box was totally the favorite, the “Crackling Black Peppercorn.”  These rice bits were a tad sweet at first but once the cracked pepper hit, the spice must flow!  These were a great little pallet cleanser after I sampled the ultra sweet Hot Cross Yum and I would gladly take more!

Last was the “America’s Nut’s Mix.”  The tough part of this health conscious company is that they are notorious for no salt.  Now I love nuts and chews but not without some form of seasoning, man that sounds bad… Still, bland meets blah… equals sadness…