Graze.com

It’s been just over a year since I started having my weekly Graze box delivered through my letterbox. Helen introduced me to Graze, telling me how good they were and how easy it was to set up an account, where you can stop them whilst on holiday or order another box each week. You can also buy a box as a gift for a friend on your account too which is a great idea instead of flowers or chocolates. The boxes contain four punnets of snack-size treats which is ideal if you’re watching what you eat, so instead of buying a large bag of mixed nuts and ploughing your way through them without realising it you can control what you eat a little easier.

The boxes are always lovely and bright and usually themed for the time of year or for an occasion. Shown above is the Christmas polar bear, the Easter bunny and the Union Flag box – which came last year in time for the Queens Diamond Jubilee. The boxes are made out of thin card from sustainable forests, which are 100% biodegradable and 100% recyclable. The individual punnets are made with recycled material that can be recycled again.

What’s in my box this week?

Mondays aren’t quite so bad nowadays, as that’s the day my Graze box is delivered. It’s always exciting to open it up and see what yummy snacks are inside. On Graze’s website it will show you how to ‘rate’ the food that you receive. There is a box to tick by each snack to say whether you would like to ‘try’ a particular snack, meaning that they will send it to you once until you then tick the box saying if you ‘love’ a snack, then these will be sent to you more frequently or ‘like’ which will mean that you will receive these snacks but not as often as the ones that you ‘love’, or ‘bin’ it, meaning it will never be sent. I don’t like olives or dried strawberries so have ticked the boxes saying I don’t want any snacks with those foods in them. My boxes are priced at £3.49 (a little more if you join now) and your first and fifth box is free. Postage is free, available nationwide and the boxes are slim enough to go through your letter box so you don’t need to be at home to receive them.

Some snacks are healthier than others, it’s up to you to choose what you would like sent. I love chocolate but that doesn’t mean to say that each week there will be a chocolate snack in my box and very rarely will you get the same snacks again and again as there are so many to choose from and Graze are always coming up with new ideas. The newest are ‘little puds’. Sticky toffee pudding is just one of their new snacks and for under 140 calories each. These snacks need to be heated as do the popcorn. I’m looking forward to trying one of these so have rated them as ‘love’ so hopefully I will receive one within the next few weeks and if I don’t like it after all then I can change it to ‘like’ or ‘bin’.

The booklet is also made of thin card from sustainable forests, which is 100% biodegradable and 100% recyclable. This tells you which snacks you have received and all the nutritional content for each punnet and the date which it has to be eaten by. The dates are usually very good, occasionally you may get a cake which needs to be eaten the very next day, but there’s not normally two items like this in the same box. For example, yesterdays box contained 3 punnets which had best before dates by the end of April, but the carrot cake needed to be eaten by today. Everything is always very fresh and I haven’t had to make a complaint yet. I have heard that Graze have very good customer service and are very quick to put things right. Also in this booklet are some tokens to give to friends and family where they will get their first box for free but it also gives you £1 towards your next box (or you can donate it to go towards the Graze School of Farming). You can also share the codes on Facebook or Twitter!

The snacks available are nuts, seeds, fruit or a mixture of all three, flapjacks, dips, cakes etc., If you are a vegan, coeliac or dairy, milk or lactose intolerant they make it easier for you by listing all the unsuitable snacks so with just one click you’ve ‘binned’ them all, rather than having to tick every one individually.

In my Spring box which arrived yesterday there was a pre-cut out Easter bunny to make. He obviously was rather optimistic as he’s wearing his sunglasses! The front of the box was lovely and colourful both inside and out. I cycle long-distance rides occasionally and need a route map. I stick these to the non-patterned sides of the box and cut around them and then I have pretty route maps. On Graze’s website they have a photo of mustard and cress seeds growing inside each punnet inside the box  which I think is a great idea for children to make.

Graze was started 4 years ago by 7 friends who loved eating snacks, but perhaps a little too much as their waistbands expanded and decided to create snacks which were healthier but still tasty. They quit their jobs and started making Graze boxes!

I have only one problem with my Graze box and that is that by Tuesday I’ve usually scoffed the lot.

Living life, loving cake

A x