November 2013 Jungle Stand Review

November's Jungle Stand was my last Jungle Stand for a while. It's a fun sub, but I wanted to save a bit of money and the food subs were my first pick to at least get paused. Which is actually pretty nice - Jungle Stand let me pause my subscription indefinitely. Super easy, too - I did it online. No people to call, no listening to the spiel about "Well, would you stay if we did this?", just an easy pause button!  Anyway, 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. November's theme was a game of Taste Match with dried fruit! Yum!

Opening the box

Chris and I tasted this one together! Like October's box, I enjoyed that this month was a game of guess the flavor! I ended up doing well. I have a fairly sensitive palette. Though, to be fair, being able to see the fruit was a dead give away in some cases. I think I still would've been able to guess most, if not all, anyway though. They should've put them in dark bags though! That would keep it a better mystery! I had Chris close his eyes and I popped them in his mouth for him. He ended up getting every single one wrong! He's so bad at guessing flavors! It was funny though.

Hints

Since we're well into December now, I'm not too concerned about spoilers. If you have November's box sitting around and haven't tried it yet, I'm not sure you want to! So, what we got this month was:
1 and 5 - Mangoes. The first one was organic mangoes with no other ingredients. The 5th had sugar and preservatives. I thought they were both pretty tasty and part of the game was to identify the one set of matching fruit and this wasn't hard. These were my favorite tastes. Chris guessed papaya for the first one and coffee bean/pear for the 5th. I have no idea if he was just joking around with the coffee bean guess.
2. Coconut. I'm usually not a huge fan of dried coconut, but these weren't the thin dry pieces that build up in your mouth. These were thick and sweet. I actually liked them. Chris guessed "evil". I'm sure you can guess how he felt about the taste.
3. Kiwi and strawberry - These were also really tasty. And not something you see that often. I've never tried dried kiwi or strawberry! Had I not seen these, these might've been my only challenge to identify. Chris guessed apple and grape.
4. Apple chips - Just like the PopSugar ones I just got. I really wasn't a fan here either. But easy to identify. Chris guessed "eel". <shrug>
6. Pineapple - super easy to identify and super sweet. Chris guessed honeydew.

The food

I like dried fruit, so I liked this box. When I told Chris the theme, he said he was up for it, but I think he must not like dried fruit because he hated pretty much everything I gave him. Oh well.

If you want to sign up, go to The Jungle Stand’s website! If you already get Jungle Stand, what did you think of last 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.)

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.)

The Jungle Stand August 2013 Review

Ack, I just found pictures for last month's Jungle Stand that I forgot to review! Whoops!

For $9.92/month, you get 6 "tastes" (smallish samples) of snacks - usually food that you might not normally come across or buy regularly. Following 2 months of snacks from around the world, August's theme was "A Taste of Italy"!

Opening the box

Info card listing all the tastes

The tastes!

Ok, so I had a lot of fun tasting everything last month with Chris and it was nice to have an extra set of opinions to report, but this month, Chris was never feeling it when I asked if he wanted to try this month's box (he's not a big snacker), so after asking him 4 times, I decided to just try them on my own. This month we had:

• Sfogliatine - Very light puff pastry with a thin sweet outer glaze. The description talks about the sheets of puff pastry dough, and I knew it reminded me of filo, coming from a Greek family. I liked this one. Light but yummy.
• Krumiri - Dense, lightly sweet cookies. The description mentions hazelnuts, but I didn't really taste that. They were pretty good, but I imagine they'd be better dunked in something as the description suggests. I don't know why I didn't try that. 
• Amaretti - Oh my gosh. Yum. These were my favorite taste in the box. I LOVE almond cookies, like the Greek amygdalota. I just love the taste and smell of almond extract. I even have a roller ball perfume of almond extract scent! I think I like amygdalota a bit better because they're a bit denser and chewier, but these amaretti were delicious! A bit airy but wow, the flavor packs a punch. 
• Cantuccini - I didn't expect to like these much, since they looked a bit like biscotti, a little dry. They are dense and do remind me of biscotti, but the flavor from the raisins is great!
• Biscuit with Mediterranean Herbs - I think this was probably my least favorite of the box, but even as my least favorite, I still liked it. With all the other sweet flavors so far, this was a good change. Unfortunately, it was a little bland for my tastes.
• Srack Griss - Wow, these had a very strong taste! Coming from the bland biscuits, I wasn't expecting that. I wasn't sure if I liked it at first, but after another, I decided I really did. This ended up being my second favorite taste in the box. Like the description says, it was very tomatoey tasting. 

I think this was my favorite box so far! I liked everything in the box (the biscuit was a little bland, but still pretty good). I told Chris he missed out! Hopefully, he'll be up to try the next one which I think may be shipping in the next week or so.

If you want to sign up, go to The Jungle Stand’s website! If you already get Jungle Stand, what did you think of this 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.)

The Jungle Stand July 2013 review

Yay! Another Jungle Stand box to try! And, as promised, I got my hubby to weigh in on the tastes this month, too. For $9.92/month, you get 6 "tastes" (smallish samples) of snacks - usually food that you might not normally come across or buy regularly. Following June's "Welcome to Taiwan" theme, July's theme was "Welcome to Japan"!

Opening the box

Info card. Not pictured is the nutritional information sheet.

Our first taste was baked cake, or manju. It was mild, sweet, and soft, with a dark center. This was my favorite taste in the box and one of my hubby's least favorite. It was funny watching him taste it. I had already had mine and was expecting a similar reaction, but he just said "Eh, it's pretty bland".
Next up was nori koiwa, a seaweed dusted rice cracker. I was expecting to not like this, but actually, it was pretty good. Sweeter than I expected, and I really didn't taste much of the seaweed, in spite of the description saying it would be a strong after-taste. Chris also liked these. These were described as "probably the best taste in the bar". We both liked them, but neither of us thought they were the best.
The third taste was age ichiban. Although it was described as sweet, it was a bit more salty to me, but a good flavor. This was probably both of our second favorites.
Next was the hitokuchi kurobo, described as the "sweetest taste in the the bar". They were definitely sweet. Too sweet. Interestingly, it tasted a bit like really soft dried dates to me, although there aren't any dates in it. It was almost dusty in consistency. Neither of us liked this one much. Unfortunate, since we got 3.
The fifth taste was taruyaki goma senbei. Chris took one look at this and said, "Oh, I'm gonna like this!" And he did. This was his favorite. This was very salty - the only really salty taste we got. Everything else had at least some sweetness to it. This was my least favorite. This is just like the kinds of snacks I don't like in those little Japanese snack mixes. Blech. I happily let him have the third senbei.
Finally, the last taste was strawberry caramel corn. This didn't strike me as terribly exotic, nor is it like traditional caramel corn (like popcorn). This was also not a favorite of either of ours, but I think Chris liked it more than I did. He couldn't place the flavor at first, although I thought it was a pretty strong fake strawberry taste. It reminded me of strawberry flavored kids' cereal.

This was a more hit and miss box than last month's, but it was still really fun to try them all. And even more fun with Chris! It's interesting to compare our favorites and least favorites - I thought it was funny that we agreed on the ones we thought were pretty good to not as good, but our favorites were each other's least favorites. I look forward to more tastes with Chris! I think the only thing he'd be less enthusiastic about trying would be mushrooms, but I think I saw a box of those a couple months back, before I subscribed, so I don't think he needs to worry too much.

If you want to sign up, go to The Jungle Stand’s website! If you already get Jungle Stand, what did you think of this 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 (or my husband's).)

The Jungle Stand June 2013 Review

The Jungle Stand Tasting Bar is a new box subscription for me. I had seen a few others blog about it and it looked really interesting. At $9.92/month, it’s a fairly reasonable price to try out new flavors and foods you might not normally come across. I got notification that my box shipped on June 19th, the day I went out of town this past weekend. I was hoping it would be a bit slow and not show up till Monday, the day after I got home, but it shipped quickly (which I would normally be super happy about!). I was a bit nervous about it not being safe to eat after sitting in my hot Texas mailbox for 2 1/2 days (and I didn’t know what was inside yet to really judge), so I emailed them to ask. I got a super quick response from Jackie, who let me know this box would be fine to eat. I thanked her for her quick response and got another response from Jackie minutes later. She was super nice. It’s great to see awesome customer service. Anyway, on to the box! June’s theme was “Welcome to Taiwan”. I was pretty excited to try it!

Opening the box

So, when you open the box, there’s 6 compartments with color coded “tastes”. It’s up to you whether you want to see what they are before or after you taste. I went with before for my first tasting bar. The box comes with an info card with descriptions and nutritional information on each “taste”:

Not pictured is the sheet with nutritional information

My first taste was the sachima. It was very sweet and caramelly tasting and had an odd airy yet squishy texture. I liked this one but didn’t love it. Next up was the rice cracker. I was a bit wary of this one because it reminded me of those rice sticks wrapped in seaweed, which I’m really not a fan of. To a degree it was somewhat similar, but it had a sweet coating that made it much tastier than the seaweed variety. It wasn’t bad, but probably my second least favorite of the bunch. Third, was the sesame pastry. This one was really interesting. Just as the card suggest, when I bit into it, it was really soft and airy with a harder outside. It was sweet and I really liked the taste – I’d put it even with the sachima.

The inside was really soft and airy and almost reminded me of cotton candy fibers.

Fourth – ugh, I was not looking forward to this one – was squid. Now, normally, I love squid. Cooked and in a pasta or with vegetables or something. This was sweet and just plain weird. I put a pinch of it in my mouth and it was just jarring. It smelled fishy but tasted sweet and had a jerky texture. Blech. Nope. There was a packet of saltines included, I guess to cleanse your palette, so I ate one of those and moved on. Next, was the pumpkin cake. There really was no cake texture to this one, it was crunchy like granola. And super tasty. This one was definitely my favorite. I’m not sure I tasted much pumpkin (or the seaweed that was in it, thankfully), but the flavor was just really good. Crunchy and salty/sweet. I’d definitely buy more of this! Finally, the last taste was peanut brittle. It was very hard. Really hard to bite into in fact. But it was tasty. A different look than I’m used to with peanut brittle, but a similar flavor. I’d probably put this even with the sachima and the sesame pastry.
So, overall, I really enjoyed this box. There was only one “taste” I didn’t like and the rest were awesome to try. I even found a snack I’d like to find more of! It was really fun to try these since I’m not sure where I’d find them without Jungle Stand. I kind of wish I had gotten my hubby in on the action to get another set of opinions (especially for this month since he likes a lot of Asian foods, whoops). A few of the tastes were kind of small, but there is some of a few of them left, so I’ll see if he wants to try. For sure next month, I’ll get his opinions too (because I’m absolutely continuing this subscription!).
If you want to sign up, go to The Jungle Stand’s website! If you already get Jungle Stand, what did you think of this 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.)