October 2015 Love With Food Box

Hey readers,

Even though I just posted my September 2015 Love With Food Box roughly two weeks ago, I promised I would be more on top of this month, so here's to making progress and not posting my October box in early November-yay! After watching the October LWF box sneak peek video on their YouTube page and creeping on their other social media sites to get a peek of what's going to come in our boxes (because I'm sure impatient!), I was really looking forward to it, especially since they showed snacks they've yet to feature in their past boxes, which is always a good sign of what's to come in the next few weeks! Seeing that NFL and college football are in full swing around the month of October (Go DAWGS!), the "Touchdown Treats" theme was very appropriate and perfect for the season that we're in! Now stay tuned to see if the snacks matched up with the theme-hopefully this box is just as good, if not better, than the last year's incredible & equally fun October 2014 Love With Food Box themed "Monster Mash."

What is Love With Food? SIGN UP HERE: (1st box for ONLY $6) It's a monthly subscription service similar to Birchbox and Ipsy where you receive a box filled with 8+ gourmet snacks, instead of beauty products (possibly more if you go with the deluxe/gluten-free boxes!) Each month has a special theme (May: Fiesta Fiesta, June: Saturday in the Park, July: Surfin' USA, etc..) where the snacks are centered around that theme. The NEW lower prices are $9.99/month for the tasting ox (annual subscription: $7.99/month), $19.95/month for the deluxe box (annual subscription: $16.50/month) and $24.99/month for the gluten-free box (annual subscription: $19.99/month). To date, LWF has donated over 700,000+ meals to food banks across the the US! How AWESOME is that?! There's so close to ONE million! You get an awesome box filled with delectable treats every month delivered to your doorstep and you're doing good! What's NOT to love about this subscription box and what they stand for?

Let's get started:

✾Packaging

✾October's Theme: Touchdown Treats

✾Information Pamphlet

✾Cookies & Cream Wafer Bites by Dolcetto: These light, crispy-yet-creamy bites are just right for popping when the score is all tied up and you need a hit of sugar to get the adrenaline going

✾Chocolate Salted Caramel Protein Bar by Luna: This salty-sweet chocolate-y treat is packed with 12g of protein to get you into the end zone every time

✾Cheddar and Pepper Premium Puffed Corn by Cosmos Creations: Lighter-than-air puffs exploding with cheesy, spicy flavor-the perfect halftime (or anytime) snack that won't weigh you down later on

✾Home Cooked Salted Virginia Peanuts by Hubs: When you think gamete, you think peanuts, right? These crunchy, perfectly salty nuts will make you feel like you're cheering from the 50-yard line.

✾Fruit Crisps by Brothers All Natural: No time to grab fresh fruit for a healthy third quarter treat? These crisps are the next best thing with no added sugar in an easy-to-eat package

✾Original Crackers by Beecher's Handmade Cheese: Cheer for your favorite teams with a cracker made for your favorite cheese.Buttery and crunchy with no trans fats, it'll be an easy favorite

✾Crunchy Sunflower Seed Bite by Somersault Snacks: Think sunflower seeds are a boring gamete snack? Just one addictingly crunchy bite will make you forget everything you thought you knew

✾Chewie Fruities Assorted Flavor by Torie and Howard: Inject some fruity flavor into your halftime huddle with these chewy, all-natural morsels. Oh, and did we mention no GMOs or corn syrup? Score! 

✾Everything in this month's box!

✾Thoughts: TOUCHDOWN! While I don't think it stacks up to last year's October box, I will admit that I'm very impressed with this month's box and the selection of snacks the curators chose! While subscribers are familiar with some of the brands in this month's box, namely Torie and Howard, Somersaults, Dolcetto, Luna and Cosmos Creations, these are definitely some brands that I don't mind seeing in our boxes time and again. The somersaults sunflower seed bites are delicious! They're crunchy, nutty and have just the right amount of cocoa powder dusted on them. While I do miss seeing their packaging with upside cartoon figures, I'm really digging the new look! Everyone in my household is already a huge fan of Cosmos Creations, so we already knew we'd love this savory cheddar and pepper flavor, since anything and everything that CC touches is pure gold! These were cheesy, peppery and light, which made me feel less guilty having devoured an entire bag. Since receiving this box, I've already gone out and purchased 2 more bags to share with my friends and family. Next came the luna bar, one of my go-to snacks in the morning when I miss breakfast. Luna bars come in a wide variety of tasty flavors and this chocolate salted caramel is no exception. With just the right hint of both chocolate and caramel, it's like having a warm brownie, but much healthier! Similarly, thanks to LWF, I am pretty much addicted to Dolcetto wafer bites. We've received both the chocolate and lemon ones in our boxes before and I absolutely fell head over heels for them and immediately ordered more the same day I received my box! I had posted via social media to LWF that it'd be awesome to try out the cookies & cream flavor and lo and behold, it's in this month's box-SCORE! This was the first item I tasted and again, it was love at first bite and I'll definitely be ordering more with my points! However, I think I need to look into buying these by the cases because my whole family can't get enough of them, especially the lemon bites! And the next item are the Torie and Howard chews. I've talked about them on my blog before and have mentioned that I'm a HUGE fan of their hard candies! So when I discovered they began making soft chews, I knew it was bound to be delicious because T&H never disappoints and boy was I right! These pomegranate and nectarine chewies were soft, flavorful and chewy-yum! The last 3 items in the box (Beecher's crackers, Hub's peanuts and Brothers All-Natural dried fruits) are brands that are new to LWF. Although I've yet to try Beecher's famous mac 'n cheese (this will hopefully change when I visit Seattle next summer!), these crackers were buttery and tasty and reminded me of a thicker Ritz cracker. The salted peanuts were just okay---while they were crunchy and freshly roasted, they were just too salty for my own personal liking, but it's probably just because I'm sensitive to salty foods. The last time in this month's box was the freeze-dried Asian pears. While our pantry is legitimately jam-packed full of freeze-dried fruits thanks to my obsession with all things related to Trader Joe's, I will admit that the Asian pear flavor didn't really blow me away. Coming from someone who grew up eating Asian pears, these didn't really taste like it or remind me of them. Don't get me wrong, these were delicious and had a very slight hint of pear, but it wasn't at all what I was expecting. I probably wouldn't have been able to guess the flavor had it not been printed on the packaging, but that's just me. I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for the other flavors they offer such as the strawberry & banana mix. In all, I thought this month's box had a great mix of sweet and savory snacks and I hope to start seeing even more chocolate products in our boxes-go chocolate! And just one more thing to note, can you believe how quickly 2016 is approaching?! There's only two more LWF boxes to go until it's the new year-CRAZY! And it seems like it was just yesterday when I received my January 2015 LWF box~

Of course I always have to ask: What was your favorite product in this month's box? Least favorite product? Comment below! :)

Have a wonderful day,

-Sandy

FTC: I was not paid or compensated for this review. All reviews and opinions expressed are my own.