Love With Food Deluxe Box Review – March 2019

Love with Food is a monthly snack and food sampling subscription box. They send only natural and organic snacks and donate a meal to charity for each box sold. They offer a smaller “tasting” box with 8+ snacks per month, a “deluxe” box with 16-20 snacks per month, and a gluten-free box with 10-15 gluten-free snacks per month. This is a review of the deluxe box.

My Subscription Addiction pays for this subscription. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)

About Love with Food

The Subscription Box: Love with Food

The Cost: $9.99 a month for the “tasting” box, $19.95 a month for the “deluxe” box, and $24.99 a month for the gluten free box. Save with longer subscriptions.

ACTIVE DEAL: Get your first Tasting box for $5.99 No coupon needed - just use this link.

The Products: snacks that are organic, natural, and/or free from artificial ingredients.

Ships to: US (free), and now many other countries as well

Love with Food Deluxe March 2019 Box Review

The information card has changed yet again, probably due to Love with Food getting bought out by Snacknation, so there aren’t really themes anymore:

There was a little product literature this month, but not much.

Belgian Boys Mini Cookie Stash Cookie Butter Cookies (1 oz) – Buy 12 Bags for $20.40 (found here for $16.70)

I used to think this brand didn’t exist outside of Love with Food, but I recently saw several of their products on the shelf at Target. I’m not the world’s biggest fan of hard packaged cookies, although there’s nothing wrong with the flavor. (I think I was spoiled growing up because my mom made really good homemade cookies and we rarely had packaged ones in the house.) I think dunking these in a hot beverage would work pretty well.

Appleways Blueberry Lemon Crispy Bites (1 oz) – Buy 15 for $18.75 (found here for $16)

I’m not sure why they are calling these “crispy bites” instead of “mini cookies,” which is basically what they are. These do have whole grains, which is great. Interestingly, they have blueberry and lemon in the name, but for me, the blueberry flavor was much stronger, while my husband swore up and down they were lemon cookies. So anyway, two different rational adults can have two very different opinions about the flavor of these.

Bush’s Best Cracked Pepper Crisp-Roasted Chickpeas (0.77 oz) – Retail Value $1.19

I am honestly kind of surprised Bush’s didn’t jump on the bean snacks bandwagon sooner. I mean, beans are what they’re known for. (Now that commercial with the dog saying “roll that beautiful bean footage” is going through my head on repeat, though.) These had a fairly plain flavor (not surprising since they were basically just seasoned with pepper) and a really good texture for this type of snack. I guess because the flavor was kind of plain, these didn’t leave residue all over my fingers.

Salmas Oven Baked Corn Crackers (0.63 oz) – Buy 12 for $18 (found here for $15.50)

This is another whole grain snack. These are a little thicker than tortilla chips and they have a fairly strong corn flavor with a bit of grill flavor or something, too (kind of like the sugars in the corn caramelized and then charred during processing). It’s a distinctive flavor that would work pretty well with savory Southwestern-style dips (including rather heavy ones as these are substantial).

Emily’s Daily Nuts and Fruit (0.85 oz x 2) – Buy 15 for $26.25 (found here for $19.75)

This was a really good trail mix. I think what I liked was that there were cashews in addition to the almonds and several different types of dried fruit instead of just one. This is not a type of snack I buy often but it is a brand I would definitely recommend if you were in the market. I don’t know that this would be a good hiking snack because you really have to work to open the package for some reason. (I resorted to scissors.)

Enstrom Milk Chocolate Almond Toffee Bar (1.5 oz) – Buy 24 Bars for $42.96

I think these are delicious and I don’t even care that it is a repeat item (I’ve used points to get these in the past). Also, for what it’s worth, these are quite reasonably priced for 24 bars at under $2 per package. I didn’t think I cared for toffee but I like it here.

Chomps Grass Fed Beef Stick, Original Flavor (1.15 oz) – Buy 24 for $49

We are not really a meat stick kind of house (I’m a vegetarian and my husband doesn’t usually eat beef) so I dropped this off on the free snacks table at work, where it disappeared pretty quickly. This is made from grass-fed beef raised without antibiotics or hormones, the ingredients are non-GMO, and these are gluten free and suitable for people on the paleo diet as well.

Mr. Nature Unsalted Trail Mix (1.1 oz) – Buy 15 for $15 (found here for $14)

This trail mix is a little more focused on nuts and seeds than the other one. They are good quality nuts and seeds in terms of appearance and flavor. This one does also have peanuts. I think it works as an unsalted product. It was a little unusual to receive two similar trail mixes in the same package, though.

Pirate’s Booty Aged White Cheddar (1 oz) – Buy 24, 1 oz Bags for $27.45

One thing I will say for these is that they have so much air space in them, you feel like you are eating a lot without *actually* eating a lot. Also, the cheese flavor is decent, though not too strong. I’m not sold on the texture, which is pretty much all corn starch and (white) rice flour, which is why these have 19 grams of just starch in a 28-gram package.

Pirouline Cream Filled Wafers (0.88 oz) – Buy 12 for $16.92 (found here for $14.50)

You’ll receive a lot of wafer cookies with crème in various forms (enclosed bites, traditional flat wafer cookies, or rolls like this) in Love with Food. That’s not necessarily a bad thing as these do have a good texture and they’re not so terrible for you as cookie-type snacks go. The chocolate flavor was good, too. (This did not arrive broken, I broke it trying to get one out of the package for a photo.)

Pop Chips Ridges in Buffalo Ranch (0.7 oz) – Buy 24 Bags for $32.34

I thought these were delicious. They’re made from dehydrated potato and I guess you can tell that by looking at them; however, they are way better than Pringles (full disclosure: I strongly dislike Pringles so I will find most things better). I sort of wish the bag had been bigger but I guess I can just go out and buy or order some if I want more; this is a common brand. Happy to receive a spicy flavor, for sure.

Ocean’s Halo Wasabi Seaweed Snack (0.14 oz) – Retail Value $1.39

Sorry no picture of the inside, but I have found that if these pick up even the slightest bit of moisture from the air, the texture becomes unpleasant. However, these were fresh and dry and have just the right crispness for a seaweed snack. I already knew I liked the wasabi flavored ones because I ordered them from Amazon a while back. (This is a product type I consume nearly every day, nearly always this exact brand, so I guess you could say I was a fan.)

Old Wisconsin Natural Cut Beef Snack Stick (0.5 oz x 2) – Buy 6 oz for $4.99

I’m not sure if this has changed packaging, or if the bulk box just looks different from the singles. At any rate, this product is called “natural cut” because it’s free of preservatives and artificial ingredients. I also dropped these off at the office; I have to admit I was a little bummed at receiving three beef items in one box, although I note that Love with Food does not promise to adhere to any specific dietary guidelines (unless you subscribe to their gluten-free box).

Super Fat in Cacao Coconut (1.5 oz) – Buy a Box of 10 for $34.95

I guess this is nut butter with coconut oil added. I swear it has as much saturated fat (if not more) as a serving of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. I know with some of the popular diets these days, high fat is the way to go, but I find my best success with a low fat, high carb (fiber) diet. So I tasted this, and it is tasty (sweetened with sugar alcohols and it does actually have reasonable amounts of protein and fiber) but it is not something I would purchase on its own. Please note: do not let your dog have any of this as it contains macadamia nuts which are toxic to dogs.

Zee Zee’s Cocoa and Cherry Soft Baked Bar (1.3 oz) – Buy 12 for $15 (found here for $13.50)

This is an oat bar that also has wheat flour in it. It is a partially whole grain product (i.e., the oats are whole grain but the wheat isn’t). It has a fair amount of added sugar. Even though this is labeled as a “nutrition bar,” it is honestly better to think of it as a cookie, because that’s what it reminded me of in pretty much every way. It has a nice, soft texture, and the chocolate and cherries were both noticeable.

Verdict: There were 17 items in the March 2019 Love with Food Deluxe Box. This is an improvement over the last few months of 2018 when there were fewer than 15 items per month. Some items were things we had received before, and a few were not vegetarian (this is not a strictly vegetarian box), but there were some old favorites (toffee! seaweed!) and a few new discoveries so I was basically happy. Now that it has been a few months since SnackNation took over Love with Food, my overall impression is that things are improving. Yes, there is still some kid food (Zee Zee’s strikes me as a kid-friendly brand, and I can see Appleways being that way too), but I thought the variety of items was quite nice, overall.

To Wrap Up:

Can I still get this box if I sign up today? You’d receive April’s box as your first box, but check the Love with Food shop, as sometimes past boxes will show up there.

Value Breakdown: At $19.95 for this box, you are paying about $1.17 per item.

Check out our past Love with Food reviews and the Food Subscription Box Directory!

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

What do you think of the March 2019 Love with Food box? What’s your favorite snack subscription?