The Boxwalla Food box contains delicious artisan crafted foods and goodies from all across the US! Boxwalla is a bi-monthly subscription service that offers four themes – natural beauty, artisanal food, international film, or books! In Boxwalla you’ll be able to discover great artisans and artists from across the globe. After your first box you can switch themes, but of course you can subscribe to more than one box as well.
The food box focuses on small-batch goodies, but only the best!
The packaging for this box is absolutely gorgeous. The box itself is sort of like a luxe cotton rag paper covered box handcrafted by artisans in Rajasthan, India, and no child labor is ever used. The outside of the reusable box indicates which variety of Boxwalla you received. I love how the box itself supports socially and environmentally conscious goals.
The information card is a letter from “The Drunken Boxwallas” detailing each of the products. The theme for this box is Wonder-food Life.
Everything in the December Boxwalla Food Box!
We handcraft this single origin 70% dark chocolate with cocoa beans we source directly from farmers in Mababu, Tanzania plus 30% organic cane sugar. Pieces of whole, organic vanilla bean (from Papua New Guinea) sprinkled on the back of the bar add a heady aroma and texture to our fruity Tanzania dark chocolate. In tribute to traditional Mexican-style chocolate, we’ve done no conching and very little refining, so the bar’s texture is coarser and more rustic than most.
I’ve had this bar before, which is delightful and those sugar crystals were to die for. I love crystally-any-food – it really activates your taste buds (ever tried aged gouda?). The vanilla flavor in this is pure and natural and unprocessed.
It was a bit broken up in the package, but that made possible some portion control!
This is a delicious bar!
Ozuke Umeboshi Plums ($12.99)
Winner of a 2015 Good Food Award these are some distinguished plums. Grown on the high mountain vistas of Colorado’s Western slope our umeboshi are lovingly salted, fermented then low temperature dehydrated. We use less salt than the traditional umeboshi in order to let the tangy, sweet fruit flavor shine through. Traditionally served with rice or even used as a treatment for morning sickness or travel sickness, we love our ume with a fine prosciutto or paired with really good saké. This is a very seasonal product. Get ’em while they’re hot!
These plums are just plums and salt, fermented and dehydrated. You’re supposed to eat them with rice or by themself, sort of like a pickle.
I was skeptical, but tried them out. No thanks, not for me! They’re incredibly salty (says the person who will put salt on ANYTHING) and just too much. I can’t figure out why you would salt and ferment one of nature’s most delicious fruits!
In any event, there were some quality issues with some subscribers’ jars, so Boxwalla arranged a refund from the manufacturer for the full value of the plums.
Askinosie Hey Hey Hazelnut! Chocolate Hazelnut Spread ($13)
Askinoskie sources the cocoa for this spread right from Davao (just like the bar). The Hazelnuts are DuChilly nuts from the Holmquist orchards in Washington State! And you might guess from that short list that this tastes nothing like Nutella.
And you’re right! It’s a really thick and rich gianduja and really eat this, not that, because this makes Nutella look like child’s play.
Wozz! Kitchen Creations Rum Toddy Toffee ($12) The ingredients list surprised me after reading the description:
The classic sailors combination with a twist. Our Rum Toddy Toffee Dessert Sauce is a combination of buttered rum, spices, vanilla bean, chai tea and 100% pure maple syrup. A rich and decadent dessert sauce perfect for drizzling over ice cream, bread pudding, apple pie or mixed in a hot cocktail.
After reading that, I was a little surprised to see the full list of ingredients! Dates, Brown Sugar, Chai Tea (water, black tea, spices), Butter, 100% Pure Maple Syrup, Spiced Rum, Butterscotch Schnapps, Pure Vanilla Bean Extract.
The dates really surprised me! But the flavor of this is delicious, and I love the body that the dates lend to the sauce. It’s going to be totally amazing on bread pudding. Totally, ridiculously amazing!
I really liked this edition, save for the plums, which I think is the only “miss” this box has ever had in its entire existence. I am hoping to see a better variety of savory items this upcoming year with some new and unique flavor combos. I would not turn my nose at chocolate covered prunes, plum chutney, artisan duck sauce, &c! I was really happy with the resolution that Boxwalla was able to obtain for their subscribers.
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