November Degustabox

November Degustabox was a very festive food box, with a great choice of tempting goodies.
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What did we find in this festive box?

Butterkist Sweet & Salted Popcorn is popped to perfection. Crunchy and tasty, it is a well-balanced combination of two opposite flavours. Disappeared fasted than you say Butterkist sweet & salted popcorn.
It was really yummy, and at 137kcal per bag is a nice treat for when you're feeling peckish.

Butterkist Discoveries Salted Caramel is another product for Butterkist. I confess I preferred the sweet and salty variant more, as caramel was predominantly sweet.


Nim's Fruit Crisps Pineapple & Mango are thinly sliced air dried pieces of fruit. They are 100% fruit, high in fibre and vitamin C. We liked the flavour, but the texture is a bit too dry. Perhaps not a snack for very young children as some of the pieces were quite sharp and crispy. I'd say it is a snack for grown-ups or older children. I love the fact that these snacks are free from additives, preservatives and added sugar. They are made from 100% fruit and air dried with skin, pips and core left (that's how I eat apples and pears).

Ryvita Thins Cheddar & Cracked Black Pepper flatbreads are great for snacking.
Ingredients include wheat flour, mature Cheddar cheese, cheese powder, wholegrain rye flour, cracked black pepper, salt. A great source of fibre, they are suitable for any snacking occasion.
Each 6g portion is 25kcal. Tuck into that salsa or guacamole.

Ryvita Green & Black's Olive Crackers are delicious crispy crackers. An excellent accompaniment to a cheese board. Try them with a slice of Cheddar and red onion marmalade or a soft ripe Brie and mango chutney. They are low in saturated fat, and each cracker is only 24kcal.

BelVita breakfast Red Berries Soft Bakes are made with 5 wholegrains. Each 50g serving contains 191kcal. Soft and chewy, they are packed with berry goodness. A source of fibre, Vitamin B6, Folic acid, Magnesium and Iron, BelVita Soft Bakes are proven to have a slowly digestible starch, so that you're not feeling hungry for longer.

Geeta's Korma Curry Paste helps you to cook an authentic Indian curry. Very handy to keep in the fridge for a quick dinner. I used flaked almonds rather than ground almonds in this recipe and added yogurt instead of cream, and it was a delicious meal.

Bourne & Wallis is a range of contemporary tasting pickles. Only naturally grown vegetables, herbs and spices as well as traditional vinegars are used to produce these pickles.

I have talked about Bourne & Wallis Sweet Sliced beetroot in a separate post - see my recipe post for Prawn salad with sweet beetroot.

Branston Orchard Fruit chutney is a festive spiced chutney, made with apple, sultana and date. It is a decent chutney, which will go well with a slice of cheese (but will it sound too smug if I say that my homemade chutneys are tastier?!).

Jim Jams Hazelnut Chocolate Spread is a tough competition to Nutella. It is a Great Taste Award winning brand which is known for its healthier spreads, including this No added sugar, Gluten free chocolate spread. It is kinder on teeth, has nearly half the calories and is diabetic friendly. It is delicious, smooth and very chocolatey.

If you fancy a French-style hot toast with chocolate and cinnamon, just spread a slice of bread with the chocolate Jim Jams, cut into two, make a triangle, dip into the beaten egg and give it a quick fry on both sides with a little bit of butter. Sprinkle with cinnamon and icing sugar.

Divine chocolate is one of my top favourite brands of chocolate. And as it happens, 70% Dark chocolate with Raspberries is the chocolate bar I pick up most often as a treat for myself. It is a fabulous combination of flavours - dark chocolate and raspberries are perfect together. I also admire Divine for their Fairtrade credentials. A great brand in every respect.

Hartley's range of jelly is well-known. I often buy a small tub of ready-made jelly for my younger son. I am not a Christmas trifle person, but the recipe for Black Forest trifle which arrived with Degustabox is very tempting, and I wonder if our guests would love it. The recipe calls for Hartley's Black Cherry Jelly, a flavour we haven't tried yet. Then there is also a Glitter jelly which brings an extra sparkle to a much-loved dessert.

Rekordelig Dry Cider is an excellent cider. Try it neat or make a mug of mulled cider with some spices and a bit of brown sugar for a festive twist.

Holy Lama Mulled Wine Spice Drops was an extra gift in Degustabox this month. I have tried Holy Lama products in the past, and they were excellent. These are concentrated extracts of herbs and spices, and you need just a couple of drops to add a great flavour to your recipe.
Mulled Wine Spice Drops didn't disappoint either.

I added a few drops of Mulled Wine Spice Drops to mulled red wine with a bit of demerara sugar and orange peel. It was a lovely festive hot drink, wonderfully comforting in this cold season.

Teisseire flavours drops were another ingredient for making hot drinks. There were two different flavours - Vanilla and Caramel. You need just a tiny amount of this naturally flavoured coffee syrup to enhance the flavour of your coffee. There is no added sugar, but I still found the drops a bit too sweet for my taste. Don't be too generous with the drops, or you'll end up with a very sweet drink. The flavours are distinct and well-balanced. One little pot is enough for 20 hot drinks, either coffee or hot chocolate (but I think it's definitely for more drinks in my case).

This is what my latte with vanilla drops looked like. A Star Wars Lego minifigure was artistically added by my younger son.