Boxwalla Food Subscription Box Review – “Flavors of Fall” October 2017

Boxwalla is a subscription box company dedicated to introducing subscribers to the best in food, books, film, and green beauty. They curate bi-monthly boxes in each of those four categories. Boxwalla's Food Box introduces subscribers to gourmet food products from small-batch producers across the US. The curators at Boxwalla seek out the best American artisanal products to share with their subscribers.

Boxwalla has beautiful packaging. Their boxes are sturdy and beautiful, and they’re crafted from tree-free paper by a small company in Rajasthan, India.

This box was sent to us at no cost for review. (Check out the subscription review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)

This review is of the Boxwalla Food, $49.95 a month, box. The cutoff date for each box is the 15th of the preceding month, but they sometimes have one-off boxes available for purchase too.

The Subscription Box: Boxwalla's Food Box

The Cost: $49.95

The Products: “Ridiculously delicious food products made in small batches in the U.S.A.”

Ships to: Ships free to U.S. only. (Note that other Boxwalla boxes can be shipped internationally for an additional fee.)

Check out all of our Boxwalla Reviews and explore other food boxes in the Food Subscription Box Directory!

Keep Track of Your Subscriptions: Add this box to your subscription list or wishlist!

Boxwalla calls this their "The Flavors of Fall" Box, with inspiration from Turkey, North Africa, Afghanistan, India, & Burma/Myanmar. I'm a sucker for good design, and I love Boxwalla's branding. This card fits perfectly inside the box, and goes into the background and flavors we can expect from each item in this delivery.

This is my first time reviewing this box, although I've sampled goodies from it before. I was really happy that despite how small the box itself was, it was packed full of really unique looking items!

(We accidentally received two of the same items from Le Bon Magot instead of the two featured in this box, but Boxwalla shipped us a replacement for the missing item.)

Lemon Sultana Marmalata with Caraway & Saffron from Le Bon Magot - Retail Value $13

We love lemon and marmalade in our household, so I was really, really curious to try these products! The intro letter notes that they are "evocative of the dried fruit preserves of Turkey" and I can see why: these aren't spreadable jams, but are chunky to the max with dried fruit marinating in all sorts of deliciousness.

When I first opened this up, I think I was imagining the dried fruit to be a kumquat for some reason... but "sultana" is what we commonly call "golden raisins" in the US.

The combination of lemon and raisin with saffron and caraway was unexpected since I usually associate caraway with rye bread and sausage. I could not imagine how those flavors would work together.

Sampled on a cracker, the flavor from this marmalata was incredible and very, very hard to describe! It was earthy but punctuated with brightness from the lemon, with floral notes from the saffron and the slightest bit of caraway. Aside from the texture, I'd have never guessed this is made from golden raisins!

I can imagine this being perfect next to some goat cheese on your holiday cheese board, but am also contemplating it as an alternative to cranberry sauce for leftover turkey sandwiches. I have a feeling it would make an incredible PB&J or grilled cheese sandwich, too.

As it turns out, goat cheese and pork chops are two of the recommended pairings... I am so on board. But if sweet + savory isn't your thing, they also include a very holiday-appropriate recipe for linzer cookies.

Spiced Raisin Marmalata from Le Bon Magot - Retail Value $13

After my first Le Bon Magot experience, I was pretty excited to dig into this second jar of raisin marmalata. Smoked cinnamon? Sounds like another excellent holiday treat!

If you're like me, you might have thought that "ras al hanout" was a Batman supervillian... but it's actually a Moroccan spice blend featuring rose petals, cinnamon, and cardamom. I'm not usually a big fan of rose fragrance or flavor, so I wasn't sure how this would play out.

Texture-wise, this one is much more obviously "plumped raisins" than the Lemon-Sultana version. This tended more toward the savory side, with a pleasant smokiness throughout and a bit of a vinegar-y bite. Very good, but very different from the first!

Although I don't think I'd love a PB&J made from this one, I can definitely see stirring it into some oatmeal for a unique breakfast. Once again, I think this is perfect for the holidays since it can be used in a lot of different ways and is sure to give any dinner guests something new to try and talk about!

Afghan Saffron from Rumi Spice, 1 gram - Retail Value $15

Rumi Spice was founded by US veterans to "attempt to cultivate peace in Afghanistan by engaging in economic trade with the Afghani people." This saffron is used by Michelin star restaurants and is also featured in the Le Bon Magot products we just sampled!

I love this tiny cork-topped jar. It feels special, but also the wider mouth makes it easier to deal with grabbing just a few saffron threads at a time.

After taking a nice big inhale from this jar, I definitely recognized the same aroma from the lemon marmalata.

I've never actually cooked with saffron myself somehow, so I was happy that this little card from Rumi Spice was included. I was thinking I'd start off easy with some saffron rice, but now I'm definitely eyeballing their recipe for Saffron Risotto with Roasted Butternut Squash. Maybe with a bit of marmalata on the side?

Orange Pistachio Bar with Turmeric Infusion from Elements Truffles - Retail Value $7

Any subscription box that includes chocolate immediately wins my favor, and if it's fancy chocolate... no contest.

This bar has only 6 ingredients, including turmeric, orange oil, and pistachios.

I was actually surprised this bar was only $7– with this packaging I expected it to be more like $10 or even more.

SO GOOD. I generally think you can't go wrong with orange and chocolate, but the dusting of pistachio and inclusion of turmeric really make this unlike anything I've tried before. And the texture was amazing: it was solid like chocolate but seemed to soften to a truffle and dissolve on your tongue as soon as you bite into it.

I loved this so much, I actually restrained myself from eating it all in one sitting so I could have some later, which is really saying something! If anyone out there is looking to buy me a Christmas gift, this sampler pack is officially on my list. 😉 Just saying.

Burma Love Lotus Chips - Estimated Value $3.99

Although this is the cheapest item in the box, it's definitely something new to me: chips made from lotus slices! These are from a San Francisco restaurant, Burma Superstar and Burma Love.

I couldn't find these for sale online, except for $6.99 for 2 oz with a slightly different label... so I think these are pretty hard to find outside of the Bay Area, where the restaurant is located. (Burma Love's site says their online store is coming soon.)

This is the only item in the box that fell just a little flat for me. They were really greasy and just tasted a lot like other veggie chips I've had; I didn't really taste much of the sesame, seaweed, or cayenne seasoning. Part of me thinks maybe they just needed more salt, but compared to all the vibrant flavors in the rest of the box, these just didn't hold up as well.

Verdict: I was really, really thrilled with the variety of interesting products included in this fall-themed edition of the Boxwalla Food box. Trying everything was such an experience and really got me thinking of some inventive new ways to incorporate unusual ingredients into some of our usual recipes. The two full-size jars of marmalata and the saffron are going to last awhile, too.

Typical for Boxwalla, the value of this box is $51.99, or just above the cost of the box ($49.95 + free shipping). The curation and the whole experience of the box is truly excellent, though, and worth it for hard-to-shop-for foodies: I wouldn't have been able to purchase any of these products locally, and I'm really excited to share some of these with friends and family this holiday.

To Wrap Up:

Can you still get this box if you sign up today? No, you will receive the December box.

Value Breakdown: At $49.95 for this box, you're paying $9.99 an item.

What did you think of this month’s Boxwalla Food box?