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First Graze Box (4 Snack Sampler)
I had a coupon for a free sample box from Graze, a subscription box for snacks. I’ve been thinking I’d like to experiment with my snack routine for afternoon snacks, so decided it would be worth trying out. I should explain that I eat lunch about 11:30 and dinner about 7:30, so having a snack in the mid-afternoon works well for me. I’ve been eating either a granola bar or a packet of Trader Joe’s trek mix with almonds, cashews, and dark chocolate. The latter is pretty much my idea of an ideal snack. It’s a little salty, a little sweet, decently high in protein, and a reasonable (1.5 ounce) portion size. However, it is a bit high in calories at 260. Still, woman does not live by nuts and chocolate alone and Graze has a pretty wide variety. While they choose what to send you, you can check off a lot of boxes on preferences, so it seemed worth a try. I have things set to avoid raisins and bananas and, after this initial box, will be getting an 8 snack box every other week. In other words, expect lots of snack reviews.
Snack #1 – Sweet Mustard Ranch: The ingredients for this were poppy seed pretzels, sour cream & onion cashews, and mustard breadsticks. Calorie count is 130. I thought this was tasty enough, though I tend to like my mustard spicier. There was a definite hint of sour cream flavor, which was nice, and definitely preferable to the expected ranch flavoring. Overall, I thought this was pretty good, but not something I would want to eat frequently.
Snack #2 – Pumpkin Spice Flapjack: This is the British sort of flapjack, i.e. a sort of miniature granola bar (well, actually three of them to the package) made with rolled oats, dates, and pumpkin spice mix, i.e. sweet spices like cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. Calorie count is 230. It’s somewhat higher in sugar than I’d want to eat every day, but it isn’t cloyingly sweet. It was moist and chewy and, overall, quite pleasing in both taste and texture. Dates are the sort of thing I don’t normally eat, largely because of their sticky texture. They worked well in this, however, and I was pleasantly surprised.
Snack #3 – Chocolate Pretzel: This consisted of pretzel sticks with a thick chocolate hazelnut dip, sort of like Nutella. Calorie count is 140. As far as I’m concerned, you can’t go wrong with anything along these lines and I found this absolutely delicious. It was my favorite snack of the box.
Snack #4 – Salted Fudge and Peanut Cookie: This is not an actual cookie, but a deconstructed one. It’s a mix of salted peanuts, redskin peanuts, miniature cocoa cookies, and vanilla fudge. Calorie count is 230. The redskin peanuts definitely dominated the flavor profile, which is fine because they are something I like. The little cubes of vanilla fudge didn’t seem to add much to this. Overall, it was very good. I think it would be even better without the fudge, which mostly added calories without a lot of flavor.
The Verdict: None of the snacks here were horrible, though I obviously liked some better than others and adjusted my ratings accordingly. I think the biggest challenge going ahead will be to keep myself from eating all of the stuff at one go. (I managed not to do it this time, by limiting what I took to the office.) By the way, if you are interested in trying this, I have codes that will get you your first and fifth boxes free, so just ask for one.
Snack #1 – Sweet Mustard Ranch: The ingredients for this were poppy seed pretzels, sour cream & onion cashews, and mustard breadsticks. Calorie count is 130. I thought this was tasty enough, though I tend to like my mustard spicier. There was a definite hint of sour cream flavor, which was nice, and definitely preferable to the expected ranch flavoring. Overall, I thought this was pretty good, but not something I would want to eat frequently.
Snack #2 – Pumpkin Spice Flapjack: This is the British sort of flapjack, i.e. a sort of miniature granola bar (well, actually three of them to the package) made with rolled oats, dates, and pumpkin spice mix, i.e. sweet spices like cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. Calorie count is 230. It’s somewhat higher in sugar than I’d want to eat every day, but it isn’t cloyingly sweet. It was moist and chewy and, overall, quite pleasing in both taste and texture. Dates are the sort of thing I don’t normally eat, largely because of their sticky texture. They worked well in this, however, and I was pleasantly surprised.
Snack #3 – Chocolate Pretzel: This consisted of pretzel sticks with a thick chocolate hazelnut dip, sort of like Nutella. Calorie count is 140. As far as I’m concerned, you can’t go wrong with anything along these lines and I found this absolutely delicious. It was my favorite snack of the box.
Snack #4 – Salted Fudge and Peanut Cookie: This is not an actual cookie, but a deconstructed one. It’s a mix of salted peanuts, redskin peanuts, miniature cocoa cookies, and vanilla fudge. Calorie count is 230. The redskin peanuts definitely dominated the flavor profile, which is fine because they are something I like. The little cubes of vanilla fudge didn’t seem to add much to this. Overall, it was very good. I think it would be even better without the fudge, which mostly added calories without a lot of flavor.
The Verdict: None of the snacks here were horrible, though I obviously liked some better than others and adjusted my ratings accordingly. I think the biggest challenge going ahead will be to keep myself from eating all of the stuff at one go. (I managed not to do it this time, by limiting what I took to the office.) By the way, if you are interested in trying this, I have codes that will get you your first and fifth boxes free, so just ask for one.
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Chocolate Pretzel Dipper: 5
Pumpkin Spice Flapjack: 10
Salted Fudge and Peanut Cookie: 8
Sweet Mustard Ranch: 4
I tend to think of the various Graze flapjacks as a meal instead of as a snack -- but the thing is, they're surprisingly satisfying, and I really like a couple of them, so I do sometimes get them and use them as my lunch.