Healthy Surprise May 2014 Review + 15% Discount Code!

Healthy Surprise is a snack food company that really lives up to its name.  I received a box full of snacks that meet an astonishing variety of requirements...all natural, vegan, no chemicals, no dairy, gluten free, non GMO, soy free and corn free.  Almost all of the snacks and/or brands in this box were new to me which is the fun "surprise" part!

Healthy Surprise offers three subscription box options:

Starter Box contains 11+ full size snacks, 16+ servings, 1-2 people - $40

Big Box contains 16+ full size snacks, 32+ servings, 1-4 people - $60

Combo Box contains 27+ full size snacks, 48+ servings, 2-6 people - $95

Shipping for all of these boxes is free within the U.S.  One thing I loved was the fast delivery.  I ordered Healthy Surprise on a Monday; it was on my doorstep one week later. (A pet peeve of mine is sub box companies that ship once a month, meaning you can wait a month and a half or more if you sign up at the wrong time.)  Boxes ship the day you order them or according to a delivery schedule that you set.  You can skip a month, pause or cancel at any time.  

You can also send the above boxes as one time (or recurring) gifts for a little higher price:

Starter Box - $50

Big Box - $70

Combo Box - $105

So, let's dig into my first box!  They use an almost origami-like approach to packaging with green and yellow tissue paper.  Right on top was a gift card containing a discount code for $25 off a gift box.

If you can restrain yourself from diving right in, the lid of the box tells about their philosophy and what is and isn't included in Healthy Surprise snacks.

And here are the goods....intriguing, huh?  I ordered the Starter Box and got 11 full size snacks.

First out is a package of Sea Salt & Vinegar Cassava Chips by Wai Lana.  All I know about cassava is that it's a starchy root plant, from which tapioca is made. 

 

Then we have Garden Veggie Chips which are made from several vegetable derivatives and flavored with sea salt.  I've had something similar to these in another sub box and found them to be really tasty.

There is a New York Date Bar, or an "apple date bar" by Go Healthy.  I don't like dates much but I ate this the other day when I needed some quick energy to run a few errands. It was tolerable taste-wise and kept me going for several hours.

Being many years removed from childhood, it's been a LONG time since I consumed any snack out of a tube. But the Organic Mashups Squeezable Fruit by Plum Kids looks good. It's made of real fruit puree from apples, pears, bananas and mangoes.  I like all fruits and this combination sounds good to me.

I'm going to force myself to taste the next one....Roasted Seaweed Snacks with sea salt by Gimme Organic. These have an alarming appearance, like dark green sheets of very thin paper (or ironed spinach).  Your intrepid blogger here choked one down....I'm sorry, they are awful, with a slightly fishy taste and a nasty after taste. No more of these for me, thank you!   

   

On a FAR more welcome note, we have a Dark Chocolate bar by Enjoy Life.  I think Healthy Surprise puts a little chocolate in every box.  As far as I'm concerned, you cannot go wrong with dark chocolate!  (unlike seaweed)

  

  

Another great snack is a 2 oz. package of Trail Mix by Trophy Farms.  This contains all sorts of good things...raisins, pineapple, papaya, almonds, pepitos (I think those are pumpkin seeds), cranberries, sunflower seeds and English walnuts.  

Next is a package of Chocolate Super Cookies by Go Raw.  These contain organic coconut, sesame seeds, dates and cacao.  (In my opinion, it should be illegal to label something made with cacao as "chocolate".) These are crunchy round little wafers...nowhere near my definition of a cookie.  They are o.k. as snacks but certainly not a substitute for a real chocolate cookie.  (I know my bad attitude about health food is showing, but I'm trying....REALLY, I am!)

There is a small package of Veggie Pals, which are carrot, orange and apple gummy chews by Happy Times.  These are really good and helped wash the taste of dried seaweed out of my mouth.  I wish there were a lot more of these!  This is a product I might go hunt down on Amazon.

A package of toasted coconut chips flavored with caramel sea salt by Dang (as in "Dang, that's good) is next.  As I expected, these are quite bland in flavor.  This is a good sized bag, so I'm going to mix them with some other snack foods.  I do like coconut but this needs to be part of a more diverse mix or used as a dessert topping to be palatable to me.

  

The last item is another 2 oz. package from Trophy Farms, roasted cashews.  I'm sure these will be a hit with most snackers!

There you have it.  This was a fun box to explore and I've definitely been exposed to a lot of new snacks that I would not otherwise have experienced.  Isn't that pretty much the point of a subscription box?  If so, then Healthy Surprise has certainly succeeded!  

If you'd like to try Healthy Surprise, click here and use the code LONESTARSHOPPER for 15% off your first order.    

As always, thanks for reading!

Cheryl

P.S.  I have some barely tasted seaweed snacks for sale CHEAP, if anyone is interested!