August 2015 GreekPack Subscription Box Review & Coupon

GreekPack is a new monthly subscription box sending you the best of Greece! Every month you’ll get 6-8 new Greek goodies sent straight from Greece. We received a review box last month and thought it was super unique and truly could not get the items locally so we subscribed.

The information card has the details on each item.

Everything in the August box.

Sideritis Olympus Tea:  Also known as ironwort or shepherd’s tea, this grows wild in the higher elevations around the Mediterranean.  When boiled and left to steep, it creates a light-flavored tea with a flowery flavor similar to chamomile.  The tea is viewed by many as a panacea, and is often credited with preventing colds and alleviating all manner of conditions.  It is traditionally served with honey and lemon — I found that the unsweetened tea wasn’t very bitter, and a little lemon goes a long way, due to the mildness of the ironwork —  it makes a suitable tea without any added ingredients.

Tsoureki (Easter Bread):  Traditionally flavored with Makhlepi (wild cherry pit) or Mastic (“Chios tears”, resin from Mastic trees grown on the island of Chios, this is a sweet bread similar to Portuguese bread.  Our roll had a tangy aroma and flavor, which may have been makhlepi.

ID Peach Bar with Almond and Erica Honey:  This bar uses classic Greek ingredients to make a wholesome energy bar.  It only has four ingredients.  The peach flavor is definitely a presence, but the fourth ingredient, the one not included in the name also has a strong influence on the overall flavor of the bar.  Dry fig gives the bar much of its texture and taste.

Charleston Candy:  Named by an American that had enjoyed these local favorites and purchased the company decades ago, these soft gummies have a great, sweet rose flavor and are much softer than even most soft style gummies.  The slightly granular texture is more akin to a really tender version of an orange slice candy than it is to a gummy (but, of course, rose flavored instead of orange).

Farma Snacks Peanut Pasteli:  Of the various versions of Pasteli available in Greece (made with all variety of nuts and often sesame), this is the one most popular with tourists in the south of the peninsula — crunchy and chewy honey and peanuts.  This bar is quite good, and the peanuts have a very developed, roasted flavor.

Miranda Biscuits:  There is nothing peculiar about these.  They are a classic tea biscuit (American translation:  a less buttery butter cookie) and have a flavor and texture very much like an animal cracker or English tea biscuit.  These are interesting only insofar as they are an example of a fairly Anglo-American / Northern European cookie made in Greece, defying the notion that all greek treats are a specie of baklava, or fruit, nuts, and honey.

Tsakiris Chips:  This is a mixed bag of chips — some are ridged herbed chips, and some are straight cut sea salt chips.  The salt chips have Mytilene sea salt on them, a very pure and highly sought after slat from the capital city of Lesbos.

https://youtu.be/tx2kQVRvuqA&rel=0

Though there are some really great snack and candy subscriptions out there, we find that Greece tends to be underrepresented among these, and GreekPack had some great items we haven’t seen elsewhere.  Everything was great quality and survived shipping quite well, save a few crinkles on the info sheet and some halved biscuits.  The Olympus tea was a fun surprise, as I had not expected to receive an unprocessed sample of something enjoyed in the Greek countryside in its natural form.  The taste of the selections was great, and they represented a nice, varied cross-section of Greek snacking cuisine.  I can’t wait for the next box!