Roaming Local April 2016 Subscription Box Review – Austin, Texas

Roaming Local is a bi-monthly subscription box containing 6 full-sized artisan pantry goodies from a featured U.S. city. The cost is $59 every other month, or prepay for a longer term and save some dough. You can also purchase a one-time box of past favorites; currently Austin and Denver are available.

My big blue box was clearly labeled with a “fragile” sticker, but not to worry, everything was intact.

I received the “Austin” box, which was the box sent out in April. Most of the time this wouldn’t be a problem, but there was one item that was worrisome to me. I will review it last so keep reading to see my concerns.

One item was bubble wrapped and all of the items were snuggled safely in their nest of shredded paper.

Everything in my box! I received not 6, but 8 items in this box! Two of them are small so Roaming Local sent 2 different flavors of those smaller items. I happen to live in Austin and was super excited to get an Austin-themed box, but alarm bells sounded when I saw the two puddings, since I am sure I have seen those at the store in the refrigerated section. I could be mistaken, or maybe they look similar to another product, but I did a little investigating and will talk about my findings later.

Even though I have lived in the Austin area for 23 years I have never tried any of these brands! Let’s see if they represent the city well.

Bearded Brothers Energy Bars in Bodacious Blueberry Vanilla and Mega Maca Chocolate ($2.99 each) Wow, these organic, vegan snack bars were delicious! They were very dense yet melted away easily once in my mouth. They reminded me of a Lära Bar, with a base of dates and nuts and other yummy items mixed in. Plus, the wrapper is compostable!

Austin’s Own BBQ Sauce in Original – Mild ($4) Despite being a native Texan my husband doesn’t barbecue (he grills our steaks and burgers but we leave the ‘cue making to the experts) but we still keep several different jars of sauce in our fridge for recipes. I plan on using this as a simmering sauce for chicken breasts and in my slow cooker version of shredded beef sandwiches. It is really good, sweet, yet with tang and smokiness to it.

Tears of Joy Hot Sauce Shop 6th Street Salsa Red ($5) I rarely venture to 6th Street anymore (I leave it to the tourists and college students) but maybe I should make a trip to this shop and try some of their other salsas since this one is pretty good! I tried this blend of roasted tomatoes and serranos with chips and found it to be mild according to my taste buds but it is listed as medium. I tried a spoonful on its own and whoo baby, there’s the heat! I am sure my husband would love this one on scrambled eggs.

Confituras Orange Chile de Arbol Marmalade ($10) Organic oranges are blended with dried chiles de arbol for a slightly spicy twist on the traditional marmalade. I love marmalade and tried this one straight up on the spoon and it was delicious and just a bit spicy. This would also be good in a sauce or glaze for chicken or an Asian stir-fry sauce.

Zhi Organic Classic Black Iced tea Kit ($9.95) This bag contains 4 filter pouches that can be steeped in 1/2 gallon of water for 8-10 hours. Can also be steeped in a gallon of hot water the traditional way, for 3-5 minutes, if you are in a hurry. I didn’t feel it was strong enough after 8 hours so I went ahead and heated up some of the water with the tea bag to make it stronger.

Sticky Toffee Pudding Co. in Sticky Toffee and Tart Lemon ($5 each) When I first saw these two items in the box I was worried because I am sure I have seen them in the refrigerated section of the store. It turns out they are shelf stable for only 2 weeks. Sticky Toffee Pudding Co. ships them via FedEx if you were to order them from their site so they can quickly get to the consumer and then be refrigerated or frozen. If these two items were originally produced in February or March then they are well past the two week mark (I received this box at the tail end of July). I reached out to the The Sticky Toffee Pudding Co. who responded that they were indeed produced in February and March and that they may be safe to eat if the box distributor (Roaming Local) had them sitting in the freezer all this time and that I should contact them to see how it was stored. I’m going to go ahead and throw them in the trash anyways. I think Roaming Local is pushing the food safety issue since the items would have to first be shipped from Austin to California, and then sent to consumers.

I have mixed feelings about this box from Roaming Local. I love that they choose a city and then strive to showcase the best that the city has to offer, but with food items, “better safe than sorry” is the way to go. My box had a value of $44.93, well below the $59 cost of the box, although priority shipping was included. I enjoyed trying new products that were indeed delicious. All of the other products have expiration dates that are in 2017 which is great and I did find some new favorites. I hope that in the future Roaming Local can offer items that are closer in value to the purchase price of the box. Plus, not send out potentially icky food.

What do you think of Roaming Local?

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