TasteCrate is a monthly subscription box full of snacks that are healthy, unique, and hard to find. Boxes will contain a variety of snacks including bars, chips, nuts, crackers, and sweets. You will receive between 15-20 snacks per crate. TasteCrate is $39.99 a box and shipping is free.
TasteCrate is for those who like trying new things at restaurants. You, brave soul. You, who hit all the latest bistros and post Insta photos of your cocktails. We made this for you. We spend every waking moment (well, almost) looking for amazing treats for your crate. From rare and exotic companies you’ve been wanting to try — to new startup brands making delicious and innovative snacks you’re sure to enjoy.
This is my first time reviewing TasteCrate and already it looks like I am in for some yummy eating ahead!
I received a card welcoming me to the TasteCrate family.
You can scan the QR code on the back and provide feedback on your box. According to the drop down menu I encountered when I scanned, this is the June box and I received it well into July.
Everything in my box!
Heywell Energy+ Immunity Grapefruit Sparkling Water ($3.99) I personally don’t drink things like this because 1.) it has extra caffeine and I don’t need more caffeine in my life and 2.) it has two different alternative sweeteners (erythritol and stevia) and I try to avoid those due to GI side effects (from the first) and an unpalatable aftertaste (from the second). The pros of this drink is that it may provide some energy from the caffeine and it has 100% of your daily vitamin C goal. It has a couple of antioxidants too. It is carbonated and smells strongly of grapefruit and tastes like it too but unfortunately that darn aftertaste is there.
Vacadillos Carne Seca in Chili Lime ($4.99) Wow, this has quite a bit of punch in it, at least according to my scorched taste buds. Carne seca means “dry beef” and this is basically beef jerky and it’s chewy and sometimes I have to dispose of a wad that forms in my mouth that my teeth are unable to break down. This isn’t sweet at all but it has really good, spicy flavor.
Skinny Lily Popped Water Lily Seeds in Sweet Chili ($2.87) I’ve tried popped water lily seeds before and I don’t think they will ever become a favored snack of mine. I like popcorn just fine and the consistency of these made them seem stale, even though I tried them immediately after opening. The flavor was fine, not too spicy, but makhana (another name for these seeds) has a hard hull and overall they have a unique flavor that I don’t care for.
Here’s a picture of the carne seca.
Pop Daddy Pretzels Cinnamon Sugar Pretzel Sticks ($0.88) FYI this bag contains 3 servings so if you polish off the whole bag then the calorie count increases to 420. While I wouldn’t normally reach for pretzels as a snack, I would make an exception for these! They are hard sticks but the flavor is cinnamon sugar and there’s a hint of butter flavor and it reminds me of eating an Auntie Anne’s pretzel.
Lüme Glow Granola in Lavender Vanilla Flavor ($2.66) I love granola and more often than not I will eat it as a trail mix rather than as a cereal with milk. This version has additional ingredients that are supposed to promote glowing skin and hair, such as biotin, pearl extract, and collagen. They also have oats, almonds, and dates. While I liked the crunch and the buttery-ness of this snack, I wasn’t a fan of the lavender, which I prefer as a scent and not a food additive.
Legally Addictive The O.G. Cookies ($2.85) If you were to order these O.G. snacks from the brand at this time of year, they would ship with a complimentary cold pack. Mine were melted together in the bag but it’s nothing a (gentle) whack with a meat mallet won’t fix. You know how people make those crackers topped with toffee and then sprinkled with chocolate chips? This is it, except you don’t have to do anything expect eat it and it’s quite addictive.
Here are the O.G. cookie/crackers. After I finished I noticed the bag had a coating of chocolate on the inside, so don’t let them sit in your mailbox too long.
Diane’s Kitchen Daily Crunch Cacao + Sea Salt Sprouted Almonds ($2) After glancing at the front of this bag and seeing cacao, sea salt, and no added sugars I threw a handful into my mouth. The weird aftertaste showed up quickly and sure enough, it is sweetened with monk fruit, which I don’t care for. I liked the crunch of the almonds, they were easier to chew thanks to the sprouting and dehydrating process they have gone through.
Sun & Swell Foods Date & Cashew Bites ($3.33) I love snacks like this — I could probably make it from home but let’s face it, I probably won’t. It’s made of cashews, dates, coconut, and lemon peel. That’s it! There were three balls in the bag and they were so yummy, with a fresh lemon flavor that made it feel somehow perfect for summer.
Here’s one of those Lemon Coconut bites.
Why Bars Zesty Lemon ($3.22) Bars are an easy meal replacement in a pinch or on the go. This bar has a base of oats plus chia seeds, almond butter, and coconut oil. It’s quite dense when you bite into it and I had to let it sit in my mouth a bit before I could chew it for fear of losing a crown. It is lightly sweet and the lemon flavor isn’t overwhelming. Picture below.
YumEarth Gummy Bears ($0.06) I think these are probably the best tasting gummies I’ve ever tried. They are made with apple juice and the colors come from fruits and vegetable. They are made with gelatin but then this box isn’t vegan so make sure to check all of those labels before eating!
Woah! Dough Brownie Batter ($2.49) These are sweetened with allulose, which doesn’t have an aftertaste to me, although I will have to wait and see if I get any GI issues later. This bar looks and tastes like a really rich, moist, almost underbaked brownie and it is delicious. A gluten-free flour blend starts the ingredient list and is made of oats and chickpeas, who knew. There’s also brown sugar and sustainably sourced palm oil. It’s a decadent snack for sure but so tasty.
Here’s the lemon Why bar. It has a layer of oil on the outside so it reminds me of natural peanut butter, where the oil separates and the inside is dry. It was still tasty.
Crazy Go Nuts Banana Walnuts ($1.24) are like a portable, non-mushy version of banana bread. They are made with walnuts, cane sugar, banana, and citric acid. The walnuts have a soft sugary coating (as opposed to a teeth-pulling caramelized coating) that tastes a little like bananas and I love them.
Mezcla Plant Peruvian Cocoa Peanut Butter Protein Bar ($3.12) I love this grown-up take on a crispy rice bar, made with pea crisps plus my favorite flavor combo, chocolate and peanut butter. There’s also cocoa butter and quinoa plus amaranth. It tastes really good, wasn’t overly sweet, and was a fun treat to eat.
Maverick’s Kids Double Trouble Choc Cookiez ($1.17) Since these are cookies for kids, I went ahead and gave them to my daughter, even though she will turn 18 in a couple of days. The are made with sustainable palm oil and cocoa plus chocolate chips. I am confused by the first ingredient, which says “wheat flour”. Okay, but is it refined or whole? Makes a difference to me and they deliberately left it vague. I tried one of the lightening bolt-shaped cookies and it reminded me of a teddy shaped cookie my kids used to eat but with more chocolate.
Split Nutrition Peanut Butter & Grape Jelly ($2.49) I think this is very pricey for what you get but maybe that’s the price we pay for convenience. One side has peanut butter made with only peanuts while the other has grape jelly made with simple ingredients. I am a person who eats pretty much any kind of jam except grape. My guess is you’re supposed to open both and eat them directly from the pack but I guess you could put it on crackers or bread if you prefer. I kneaded the packs before opening and still had peanut oil drip everywhere but the flavor was good, although it isn’t salted. Also, some of the peanut butter remined in the bag afterwards. The grape jelly tasted better than the kind from the grocery store but I prefer some texture from fruit rather than a smooth gel. It’s best to fold the pack in half and squeeze both parts into the mouth at once for the best flavor.
Here’s the Mezcla bar. The chocolate was melted en route.
Crisp Green Crispy Fruit All Mango ($1.25) Don’t you love it when a snack is made of just one ingredient, like these freeze-dried mangoes? That’s all there is and it’s crispy and sweet like candy and I’m imagining other ways I could use it other than out of hand — maybe in oatmeal, or sprinkled on granola, or in a yogurt parfait. So many possibilities!
Cosmik Ice Cream ($3.99) Here is another freeze-dried snack, except it’s ice cream! There’s another bag inside the pouch that has slits in it and the ice cream is supposed to be broken into pieces so make sure to open over a sink or bowl. It has some strawberry flavor but the citric acid makes it really tangy, and my daughter didn’t care for it. I let it sit in my mouth until it was totally dissolved. Make sure to consume immediately after opening because it will start to become soggy as it soaks up moisture in the air.
I thoroughly enjoyed my very first TasteCrate shipment! I’ve tried a lot of snack boxes but this one had so many new-to-me snacks that I have never tried before and that was very refreshing! No, not all of them were hits but that’s ok because something that I love you may detest but if you are open to trying snacks that are on the healthy-ish side then you might want to give them a try. There were 17 snacks in all and they were sweet, salty, crunchy, chewy, and most were yummy. This breaks down into about $2.35 a snack and we calculated a value of around $45 using bulk values in most cases. I think that’s not a bad price to pay since now I know what I like and what I don’t, and I can purchase the stuff I want more of in bulk, whereas if I bought it before without trying then there would have been some waste (not to mention a huge outlay in initial cost and a ton of snacks I might not have finished before the expiration came around).
What do you think of TasteCrate?
Comments
Thanks Deb for this detailed review. Its got me thinking I might want to try them. I get Love with Food now, do you think Taste Crate is worth paying twice what I am paying now? Pretty happy with Love with Food but they do a lot of repeats.
If you are loving Love With Food then I think it’s a pretty good value when broken down per snack, but yep, the repeats are really bringing me down. I just opened my latest TasteCrate and there are 16 snacks inside, most of them a generous single serving, some of them with multiple servings. I am pretty sure I’ve only tried one of those snacks before, the rest (including the brands) are all new to me! They look like stuff you might pick up at Whole Foods or Sprouts. I guess it depends on how much you would see yourself paying for single-serving snacks if you were shopping at those stores. It’s going to take me a while to go through them but we will break down the prices and I will try to remember to also discuss the price per serving and the price per snack.
Great review! Thanks for the detailed descriptions of the tastes and textures.
You’re welcome and believe me Mary, it was no problem at all (heh heh heh, I love food!).