Degustabox - February

Another month, another box full of goodies from Degustabox, so I can tell you all about it.

The interesting thing about this month's box was that either I was very familiar with the foods, or I'd never heard of them. There weren't any where I had heard of them vaguely, but hadn't yet tried.

So here we go:

Popchips Ridges

I've tried a bunch of the different flavors of regular Popchips. If you're not familiar, they're like potato chips but they're baked and puffy, so they seem more substantial than regular thin potato chips. Still great for dipping, though. These new ones have ridges. Yum.

Grace Foods Coconut Chips

Oh dear. Coconut. Not my thing. I gave these away to someone who was totally thrilled with them. So that's good. If you're a fan of coconut, you might want to look this up. If you're me, it's good to have friends.

Walkers Shortbreads
I totally adore shortbread cookies and these are the real deal. They're traditional shortbreads, with just butter, flour, sugar, and salt, so there's no preservatives, colors, artificial flavors, or anything else to detract from cookie goodness. Shortbread cookies also make a great crust for cheesecakes, if you've got extra cookies.

Nando's Peri-Peri hot sauce

I have a bottle of this in the fridge. It's pretty hot. So I'm more likely to use it sparingly than to slather it on something. But along with the heat, it's got good flavor, which I think is important. Besides putting it (sparingly) on tacos, it's good as part of a marinade or a sauce. Or added to chili. Or soup. Or whatever.

Slendier pasta
This is konjac pasta, which is gluten-free, high in fiber, and very low in calories. I have a ridiculous amount of pasta in my pantry, so I decided to pass it along to someone who is avoiding gluten. If you're gluten-free and/or looking for something lower in calories, this might be a good alternative to traditional wheat pastas.

Ricola losenges
Great for when you have a sore throat or when you're in that pre-cold, tickly throat stage. This has a bunch of different herbs along with ginseng. It's a unique flavor, but I happen to like it. This sort of thing is nice to have on hand, just in case ... because once you're starting to feel cruddy, you don't want to be running to the store, right?

PR Bars
Vitamins, carbs, whey, soy protein. Gluten free. This bar is supposed to be balanced to give you fuel and "keep you performance ready." I don't eat a whole lot of bars like this since I work from home and there's usually something more meal-like at hand, so I passed it along to someone else to sample. It sounded good, and they're not crazy expensive, so if you're not happy with your current energy/snack bars, look for these.

Jones Soda
Ooooh. Orange and cream. Jones Sodas have some interesting flavors and they use cane sugar rather than corn syrup. I've bought this before and I have to say it's pretty good.

Green & Black's dark chocolate with sea salt
I've bought a lot of Green & Black's chocolates over the years, and they've always been good. I've also baked with some of them. Anyway, this is a dark chocolate with sea salt, so it's got a little crunch and then the saltiness that makes the chocolate seem sweeter for just a moment. This is the kind of chocolate bar that lasts me several days, in little indulgent pieces. So good.

So there you have it. The current box. I get these boxes from Degustabox at no cost to me, just so I can describe them to you.