Things are still going at almost full-speed here and they’ll continue to race for another few weeks yet, before things start to slow down. Things haven’t always gone to plan recently, but that hasn’t always been a bad thing. I can’t wait to be finished painting the house (I do NOT like painting doors) and have everything thinned through and organised back into place so we can all relax together and enjoy the fruits of our labour. At that point, we should be able to show more ‘action’ shots of our life and products, once again. This month’s Picnic Degustabox has been enjoyed between coats of paint and running from one activity to another. How have you spent your summer?
Let’s start with the contents of the Summer & BBQ Degustabox before moving on to our top picks. Each monthly box contains between 10-15 products; some aren’t yet available in the shops which gives you the first chance to try them out! The short version of this month’s box is that there are 11 items; 5 snacks, 2 beverage items, and 4 meal items. The long version is….
The Picnic Box Contains:
- £1.99 Mister Free’d Vegan Tortilla Chips with Beetroot
- £1.50 Rank’s RedHot Original Cayenne
- £3.00 MONIN Butterscotch Coffee Syrup
- £1.29 x2 Rowntrees Randoms Squish’ems & Sours Sharing Bags
- £1.50 Ravish Pineapple & Yuzu Salsa
- £2.00 Ribena Frusion
- £1.49 Ape Snacks Coconut Bites Sesame Seed
- £1.35 Deli Kitchen Greek Style Flatbreads
- £1.99 Kallo Belfium Milk Chocolate Rice Cake Minis
- £2.50 Simply cook Piri Piri 3 Step Meal Kit
There is also a voucher for a free SimplyCook product worth £2.50, as well as a voucher to claim 4 repie kits for £1 from SimplyCook.com, and we’ll be taking advantage of both of these!
And from MONIN, there are recipes for 4 drinks to make using their coffee syrups.
Picnic Box Top Picks
Each month we feature our top picks in the box. Of course, these choices are based on our own tastes, and I’d love to hear what your favourites are, just pop them down in the comments at the end of this post.
This month I’m going to have MONIN Butterscotch Coffee Syrup at the top of my list because this is a product we already had in our cupboard. I like to add a shot of it into my specialty coffees for a little extra treat on those extra rough days, and I know Phil loves it as well. It’s great in both hot and cold beverages.
Rowntrees Sours are also on my list as I love sour candy! The more pucker-power the better in my view. Sshhh…I may have had the entire bag without sharing…but I have saved the Squish’ems for Phil as he likes those 🙂
Also high on my list are Mister Free’d Vegan Tortilla Chips with Beetroot; like their info claims, they do indeed have a strong veggie flavour, which I love – no whishy-washy scardy-cat flavour here! The bright colour matches the bold flavour, too. I could easily eat the bad in a sitting, but I’ve been very restrained and have set these babies aside to mix in with a taco salad for some extra excitement! Although it doesn’t appear that they’re available locally here in NI, I’ll be looking out for them when I shop.
The Kids’ Top Picks
Here’s a little funny moment for you…I don’t often have Ribena, and I didn’t read the label too well on our first try of the Ribena Fusion – I thought is was supposed to be diluted – but it’s not! It’s still not bad with added water but it’s much more flavourful on its own as hubby and kiddos soon pointed out! They’ve all grown up with blackcurrent flavour whereas it’s not a common flavour in Canada, which may be why they all preferred this drink more than myself. That being said, I enjoyed this more than I normally do.
Kallista liked the Ape Snacks Coconut Bites with Sesame Seed. They were like little mini rice cakes, but with coconut instead, and with added sesame seeds for more flavour. These are small and very easy to throw in a bag to take with you on the go.
Kallo Belgium Milk Chocolate Rice Cake Minis were something we all loved! Rice cakes are delicious as they are, but add a thin coating of milk chocolate over the top, and they turn from bland to grand. The small packets of 6 mean they’re easily transportable as well as being shareable (if you are so inclined). The childrens’ faced brightened right up when they had these!
More Summer & BBQ Degustabox Products
In our family, we’re all about hot, hot, hot! Frank’s RedHot Original Cayenne Pepper Sauce was well-received and has a good home in our refrigerator where it’s easy to reach. It was good in a tuna fish sandwich, in spicy noodles, and potato soup.
In this month’s box there were fresh Deli Kitchen Greek Style Flatbreads, which we’ve put into the freezer for later in the month when we’ll be making falafels from scratch, which will be great with these and a salad…perhaps we’ll take them with us on our annual picnic by a nearby waterfall.
I’m looking forward to trying out the Ravish Pineapple & Yuzu Salsa – it sounds very interesting and I know that yuzu was popular when I was in Japan.
The family is also looking forward to cooking with Simply Cook’s Piri Piri Chicken 3 Step Meal Kit. It looks easy enough that I’m sure the children could (and will) do it on their own. It isn’t a flavour we’ve had before (strangely enough), so that will be a new experience, too!
There you have it! The full run-down of the June Degustabox – the ups and downs and in-betweens. Have you tried a Degustabox yet? Give it a whirl and see what delights are in the next box!
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