Jungle Stand September and October 2013 Reviews

It would seem I forgot to write about September's Jungle Stand! Honestly, I was so hesitant to try it, it took me weeks to even open the package. It was a bit out of my comfort range. Anyway, here's my experience with both months!

Just as a reminder, The Jungle Stand is a snack sub where for $9.92/month, you get 6 "tastes" (smallish samples) of snacks - usually food that you might not normally come across or buy regularly. September's theme, finishing up the summer around the world tastings was a 3 country combination: Jamaica, Philippines, and India.

September snack info

Looking at the pictures, I was a bit afraid. These are not my taste in flavors. At all. Chris thought I might like the Cornflakes Mixture, but I wasn't so sure of anything. Unfortunately, he still hasn't tasted any of these, so I only have my opinions this time. So, we got:

Snack bags

• Jamaican Jerk Spice Nuts - The bag actually just smells like honey roasted nuts, so I was hopeful. They don't really have a whole lot of initial flavor, honey roasted or otherwise, but the aftertaste includes the spice. I don't like spice. When we go to restaurants where things might be spicy, I ask for no spice whereas Chris is asking for them to go above their top level of spice. He might like these, and compared to the whole box, they weren't too bad, but I still wouldn't reach for them if there were other better choices.
• Fish Crackers - Ugh. Well, surprisingly enough, there wasn't an overwhelming fish scent to the bag, so I braved a taste. First off, I think I had waited too long to open them because they're like styrofoam. Beyond that, there is an initial really strong fish taste and then they kind of mellow out like the note suggests. Not enough to have more than one, but whatever. If these weren't totally stale, I think Chris might not mind these. 
• Khatta Meetha - called a "signature Indian taste", this is basically an Indian trail mix with dried noodles, rice, peas, and nuts. It has a VERY intense flavor that, well, almost made me gag. Sorry, India. Nope. 
• Sweet Jamaican Jerk Pops - Similar to the fish crackers, these were really stale upon opening their bag. They're also really spicy. Without the spice, they have a nice sweetness that I think I'd like on its own, but me and spice just don't mix.
• Vegetarian Chicharon, Salt and Vinegar Flavor - I'm not a fan of salt and vinegar chips, so I wasn't expecting to like these either. A little stale again, I don't like them as expected. I don't hate them, but again, I didn't really want more than one. Chris likes salt and vinegar chips, so I imagine he'd like these.
• Cornflakes Mixture -  These taste fairly similar to me to the Khatta Meetha, so again I really don't like it. It's also spicy. There is some kind of remote scent/taste memory that is instantly triggered when I taste these. I don't know what it is, but it isn't pleasant.

Well, this was a bad box for me. I'm a bit sad I took so long to open it, because when I told Chris the snacks, he thought they all sounded great and was happy to take them all if I didn't like them. I'll still see if he wants to try them because I want to see if he really does like them, but I don't think he'll want to finish them with how stale they are. And again, the staleness is my fault, not Jungle Stand's.

Moving on to October! October's theme, predictably enough, was "The Witches' Halloween Challenge" and was full of candy. I like that this one x-ed out all the flavors on the info sheet and challenged us to guess (there was a spoiler card)! It was a fun little activity.

October snack info (answers on separate card)

I actually did really well with the challenge and only got 1 wrong! I won't spoil them here just in case anyone hasn't done this box yet. Being that this was a candy box, and I like candy, I was much more excited about trying these.

October snacks (there are actually more of the white balls in the upper right hiding under the label)

•  x Bubbles - I like the little crunchy pieces on the outside and the overall flavor is mild and pleasant. I wasn't entirely sure of my guess on this one, but it turned out I was right. This was a good one!
• Jelly Belly x - This was the only one I got wrong. I like Jelly Belly jelly beans, so I thought these were pretty good, but very sweet, so I didn't really want more than one or 2 at a time. I also always have trouble telling flavors apart on jelly beans. Except the buttered popcorn and licorice. Yum!
• x Chewy Sour Balls - I didn't think these were sour at all, but the taste was immediately apparent. This was the easiest one to guess. Tasty. 
• x Caramel Cream - I was soo hopeful for these because I love this brand in the regular caramel creams and cow tails. I used to eat these all the time growing up. This is a different flavor though and man, it totally ruined it. Ugh, the flavor was soooooooo bad! Granted, the flavor it is is not one of my favorites in terms of flavors, but even if I did like that flavor candy, it's just so tart and bad. And after popping the whole caramel in my mouth, it just felt like forever till it was gone. I probably should have just spit it out, haha. Definitely the worst taste in the bar, by far. 
• x Chewy Sour Balls - This one was actually somewhat sour, unlike the other flavor in the box. I thought their description of "when you bite into it, you'll get so much splash that you're left to wonder where it all came from" is pretty accurate. There's a huge wave of flavor - and a pretty easy one to guess again. Not a favorite again, but definitely better than the previous candy. I ate a couple. 
• Caramel x Creams Candy - Oh dear. I was hesitant after the first one of these in the box, but thankfully, this flavor was much closer to the ones I remember and was actually pretty good. Unlike the other one which had a flavored caramel and a regular cream center, this one had a regular caramel and a flavored center, so it was much lighter on the fruit flavor and the cream dissolved pretty fast, so that just leaves the regular caramel. I thought this one was pretty easy to guess. 

So, October was much better than September! Only one miss. I think my favorites are torn between the x Bubbles and the last Caramel x Cream.  I do kind of wish there had been a bit more variety - we had 2 chewy sour balls and 2 caramel creams. It would've been nice to have 2 totally different candies instead of the 2 semi-repeats. I guess chocolate would be too different and really wouldn't have fit in with the challenge, but maybe a couple different hard candy brands? Again, Chris hasn't tried these yet, but I probably will at least offer. He's not huge on chewy candy, though, so this one may not be his thing.

If you want to sign up, go to The Jungle Stand’s website! If you already get Jungle Stand, what did you think of the past 2 month’s tastes?

(And just a disclaimer: I bought this box myself and was not compensated for this review in any way. All opinions are my own.)