DegustaBox September 2016 {Unboxing}

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It's no secret that DegustaBox is my favorite food subscription box. For starters, they really pack these boxes full of our favorite brands as well as brands that are new to us. A lot of the things in the box have been out for a while, where others are fresh new products that have just hit shelves. The best part is that for the price of the box, you are getting the products for a fraction of the price you find them in stores. It's a really great deal. 

September's box was, once again, an awesome box with lots of products that we got to try for the first time. 




BustaNut are flavorful peanuts with a name that makes you snicker. I cannot even tell you the amount of terrible pun and immature jokes that flew around my house while my husband was eating these, but I digress. The flavors are unique and oh so delicious. Maple Bacon had just the right sweetness to them and combined the two popular flavors very well. The Bourbon had a nice kick to them and it was my favorite of the two flavors. Of course, this company makes a bunch of different snacks in addition to the peanuts. 


I love shortbread cookies! My daughter helps me make homemade shortbread cookies for Christmas. So when I discovered that we got not one, but two little boxes of shortbread cookies, I was on cloud 9. The chocolate chip cookies were my favorite (of course), but I was surprised how much I liked the pure butter with a pinch of sea salt. They were crisp and buttery and a perfect little snack to have with my mug of hot tea or hot cocoa. 

If you've been following me for a while, you know I'm a bit of a fitness freak. I'm into eating healthy and my favorite breakfast is oatmeal or an oatmeal bar. They are filling and I've always loved the flavor possibilities. So I was excited to try this Toosum gluten-free oatmeal bar. At only 100 calories and in my favorite flavor Cranberry & Acai, this made a great post workout breakfast. Every ingredient in these bars are natural with nothing artificial. I also like that it's low in sugar. I need to stock up on these, especially the banana and coconut! 



I'll admit, I have never tried any kinds of chutneys or curds and I was a little afraid to try them because while I'm usually pretty into trying new foods, I just had never had them before and wasn't sure what to use them on or in. I went all in and tried them and now that I have, I don't know how it took me so long. I've discovered that these are amazing on sandwiches and especially with fresh, homemade bread! My favorite is a toss up between the sweet tomato & chili and the caramelized red onion. The lemon curd is a sweeter flavor which I think would be best used on an angel food cake or muffins. I haven't experimented too far with these yet, but I'm looking forward to finding new foods to combine these with.


I just recently heard about ZolliDrops, which are candies that are sugar free, dairy free, gluten free, vegan, kosher, and made with natural flavors and colors. Believe it or not, the master mind behind these healthier alternative candies is an 11 year old girl! They are supposed to be a little treat for after meals that help clean your teeth. My kids certainly loved them. I thought they were good, myself, since I don't like anything real sweet and I'm not a big candy eater. The drops (they also have lollipops), have only a slight sweetness to them. The sweetness isn't over powering and it's more like eating fresh fruit, with less sugar and more of the fruit flavor. The only issue I had with these is that they are very sticky and we had problems getting the wrappers off. 


Entenmann's Little Bites have been around for quite a while. I remember my mom buying packages of these in blueberry flavor for my dad's lunches. This is the first time I've tried the chocolate chip flavor, though and they were just as good, if not better, than the blueberry. How can you not love tiny, bite sized muffins? There were 4 muffins in the package (I ate one, obviously) at 190 calories. 


I didn't expect the taste I got from these chips. I opened the bag, dipped the first chip in some salsa, and expected a savory flavor, but what I got was actually a sweet flavor. These popped corn chips  were a lot more like rice cakes than chips. They were light and airy, but they weren't salty like I expected. They had a sweeter flavor to them. They were still good with salsa, honestly, but they are definitely much better alone. I would love to try their Smokin' Jalapeno White Cheddar flavor.



I went all Food Network Chef and combined the next three ingredients. While none of these things usually go together, I made a surprisingly good dish with them and the only thing I added was smoked sausage. 

I sauteed the smoked sausage with the Rustic Ratatouille One Pot Cooking Sauce from Hak's Packs, then layered over the cooked Quinoa Fusilli by Sam Mills, and added a little bit of the Nando's Peri-Peri for a little extra kick. The Peri-Peri is a spicy sauce that is perfect for chicken, but it was spectacular with my smoked sausage. The Ratatouille sauce is so versatile it's amazing. You get 4 servings from one packet and all you have to do is add a pound of meat or veggies of your choice. It's savory and when combined with pasta is super filling. 


This one was a little weird for me. I love water. I love sparkling water. This one has a taste that I just couldn't get past. Sparkling Bitters is exactly that. It's sparking water with the addition of tonic bitters. it's definitely an acquired taste, in my opinion. There's just something about bitter water that I don't care for. It could just be the flavor I got as lemon obviously has a bitter taste on it's own sometimes. I think the peach flavor might be much better, so I'm going to get myself a few of the peach and give that one a go. One thing is for sure, I definitely want to keep trying to like this because as it turns out, bitters are important to our health! 



*Disclosure: This product was received in exchange for an honest, unbiased, review. The reviews and or opinions on this blog are 100% my own. No monitory compensation was received and I was not required to write a positive review. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commissions 16 CFR Part 255: Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsement and Testimonials in Advertising .  

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