August 2015 Cuisine Cube Gourmet Subscription Box Review & Coupon

Cuisine Cube is a gourmet subscription box delivering either artisan, vegan, or gluten-free groceries every month!  Cuisine Cube was created by a team of enthusiastic eaters, food professionals, and allergy sufferers from New York City who came together to create a new kind of gluten-free delivery service and to share their experience in the hunt for great gluten-free food.  Recently, Cuisine Cube started expanding their offerings to vegan and artisan boxes too.

The theme for this month’s box was “Picnic in the Park.”  It’s not clear how the stated theme relates to the curation of the box. I believe the theme is selected to represent a NY-related food experience, since all the items are from NYC or Southern NY.  The card gives a little insight on each of the artisan producers.   

We receive the “Artisan” box.  It came with six items (subscription promises 6-7 items) for an average price under $7 an item, excluding the value of the bonus item.  

Here are all the grocery items that came in the box.  Pretty substantial portions of everything.  This is definitely a pantry-style box rather than a sample box, and you would have to be pretty hungry to finish any of the items in one sitting, even with a little help.  Some items are for standalone eating, and some are really more for building a meal around.

GreenPoint Trading Co. Blackbear All Purpose Seasoning ($9):  I had to chuckle looking at this bag (a big, 8 oz, BTW), as it is GF and Vegan, and the back suggests it is great for tofu and veggie burgers.  My first thought was how good this would be on Carnitas or a brisket!  Nothing too odd in here, this is paprika-centric, and this huge bag means you can smother just about anything (you could literally do a whole pig if you wanted).

True Made Foods Original Veracha Hot Sauce ($6.50):  This version of sriracha mellows out the fiery concoction a bit by adding in a healthy dose of spinach, squash, and carrots.  The veggies add some depth and sweetness, and taking the edge off of the peppers (don’t worry, the heat is still there) makes the sauce a more subtle addition to your favorite recipes and a more soft-spoken partner for your favorite foods.

Gatherer’s Gourmet Granola – Badger’s Best ($6):  Thankfully, a real granola!  Quinoa is in there, and no extra sugar is added, but this granola stays pretty true to the classic formulation.  Some coconut and dark chocolate are scattered throughout (in tiny bits, don’t expect chunks), but classic toasted oats do the heavy lifting.  This is a good all-purpose granola with nice crunch, mild sweetness, and no fruit.

Megpies Strawberry All Natural Handmade Tart ($3.50):  Sweet jammy filling and flavored icing complement the flaky, light goodness of the tart.  These are really tasting — I was sad that only one was in the box, since everything else was in multi-serving package.  OK, maybe it’s supposed to be more than one serving, but it’s just too tasty for that.

This all-natural tart cannot disguise itself as a breakfast pastry — it’s just too sweet snd gooey.  This is desert all the way!

Bjorn Qorn ($6):  A truly interesting and enjoyable product.  “Nutritional yeast” is added to this sun-popped corn, adding a nutty and cheesy flavor — someone blind-taste-testing this would likely guess that it had a cheddar/parm coating.  The sprinkle is very visible, and very tasty.  Definitely a must try.

Kitchen Table Bakers’ ParmCrisps ($4):  Salty and very crispy, these are potent and packed with flavor.  Made of nothing but real Parmesan cheese.  These are great straight out of the bag, but they would make an awesome “cracker” for salami or mortadella.

Salted subscription:  This innovative program grants access to a library of cooking classes featuring some of the nation’s top chefs.  Each episode is in full HD, and they even have a Chef Hotline for cooking help.  The box includes a 3 month subscription ($30 in value)!

Cuisine Cube definitely follows through on the full-size promise.  The items were all extremely high-quality, artisan-style products, and the value is pretty good.  Even if you were to ignore the $30 Salted subscription, that would mean the products would have to be $6 average retail value, which I can see these items fetching if bought in-store, plus you have the curation (I noticed before even looking at the cards that each product was made in New York) as well as the shipping savings – almost all of these items would require a hefty shipping fee to purchase individually.  Boxes are available in Artisan, Vegan, or Gluten-Free collections.

Visit Cuisine Cube to subscribe or find out more! Use coupon code 10OFFHELLOSUB to save $10 on your first box.