My relationship with surprise subscription boxes has been a bit on-off. I was subscribed to Petit Vour and Glossybox waaayyy back in the day, and I'll admit now I was only doing it cause I was a new blogger and I thought it would help me blend in with the cool kids.
I did enjoy receiving them but I ultimately unsubscribed because there was always something in the box that I had no interest in (I actually still have a few products floating around my bathroom cabinet that originated from the 2011 boxes). Yes, these boxes might be great value overall in terms of price but I'd much rather spend money on something I'd definitely use, even if it was a higher purchase price.
And then I went cruelty-free in in 2012 so even if I wanted to subscribe to a beauty or food box I'd have very few options. One option I do have is Vegan Tuck Box, a UK based subscription box that specialises in vegan snacks to keep you going throughout the day.
They offer two different boxes: the Vegan Variety Box (with 5-8 snacks) and the Vegan Ultimate Box (10-13 snacks) the second of which they recently sent me to review. Will this leave me sold on the idea of subscription boxes? Let's have a look.
The first thing that struck me as soon as I opened the box was how much food there was in it. Like, I was aware that there would be a double-digit amount of snacks but the box was almost stuffed to the brim (and getting a neat picture of it all wan't easier).
On second glance the next thing to please me was the variety of snacks. I usually get weird looks when I share this but *drum roll* I don't like chocolate. I'm a savoury girl through and through, who will take a pastry/crisps/decent sandwich any day over chocolate or even cake (every year I ask for a birthday burrito and no one buys me one?). In my particular box there was chocolate but I also found Bombay crisps, coconut pecks, morning tea and even some vegan Parmesan (is this a snack? I don't really care because vegan Parmesan). That's definitely enough to keep my savoury tooth happy.
As some of you may know I very recently returned from a work trip to Kenya. When I was first asked if I wanted to go I squeamishly said yes because the question I was thinking was exactly the same question I typed into Google later that day: "can you be vegan in Kenya?". Turns out the answer I got wasn't what I wanted, so in the suitcase the snacks went.
Turns out Kenya was not quite as bad as I assumed....vegetarian and vegan food is a bit repetitive and the V symbol isn't used, but you can do it. Saying that I was still glad to have a few badboys in my bag. My favourite was definitely the Hoots Smoked Bacon - salty and savoury at the same time which is totally my kind of snack. Next up I really liked the Inspiral Salted Caramel Coconut Pecks, which I was a bit surprised to find I liked and I think they would be really nice sprinkled on top of a cupcake rather than eaten by themselves. I also really liked the Ten Acre Bombay Spicy Crisps and I am fully aware that curry flavoured crisps are not to everyone's liking but they're totally to mine so there.
And I loved the vegan Parmesan, but obviously I didn't take that to Kenya because that would be weird...
Has Vegan Tuck Box ignited a passion in me for subscription boxes? Well, no - but thankfully they have worked people like me (who want good snacks but don't necessarily want to subscribe to a surprise box every month and risk having a cupboard overflown with stuff they don't want) into their business plan in the form of single issue boxes. There's seven styles of single issue boxes (one of them is a savoury themed box too!) that range in price from £5 to £18.50. While I doubt I'd sign up for a box every month, if I find myself travelling again (especially in a country that's a little more difficult to explore with my dietary requirements) I will definitely pop in an order.
What's your take on subscription boxes?