When I re-visited the Taste Trunk site recently, I was surprised to see that there have been quite a few positive changes. It looks like they still have a monthly plan available for some of their trunks (honestly, it is a bit confusing) but there are MANY more options for buying single themed trunks or purchasing multi-month gift subscriptions. You can also curate your own trunk, choosing items from an a la carte menu which is a very appealing option to me.
Taste Trunk offered a special Valentine's Day trunk full of artisan sweets from vendors that were mostly familiar to me, thanks to previous Taste Trunks. Sweet tooth that I have, of course, I ordered it immediately! It was nice to see that big cardboard treasure chest arrive once again in my mail.
Here are all the goodies with some still in their vintage catalog-print paper bags and a "Happy Valentine's Day" card
One of the bags contained six information cards, one for each vendor. These are full of details about the vendors and the products. I believe almost all of these vendors have been featured in previous Sweet Trunks.
There's a 2 oz. package of All Natural Crunchy Cookie Chips in Sea Salted Peanut Butter flavor from HannahMax Baking in Gardena, CA. I've noticed that cookie chips have started showing up on grocery store shelves, probably because they are a lower fat version of regular cookies. These are very flavorful and crunchy!
When the Taste Trunk arrived, there were ten candies in the bag containing these Almond Caramel Chews from Nunes Farms of Newman, CA. When I took the photo, there were somehow just eight remaining. Now, there is one lonely little almond caramel chew and I suspect it will not be around much longer. Enough said?
Remembering how good this Classic Crumb Cake from Sweet Sam's was last year, I forced myself to cut this one in half to make it last for a couple of days. Love the crumbs piled high on top of this decadent little cake!
These two chocolate bars come from Seattle Chocolates. One is called "Pink Bubbly", a dark chocolate truffle bar made with freeze dried raspberries with popping candy pieces that tickle the palate like champagne bubbles. The other one is called "Total Toffee Bar"; it features milk chocolate loaded with English style hard toffee bits and a hint of sea salt. Valentine's Day indeed!
Another of the paper bags contained these candies, which are also from Seattle Chocolates. There are five flavors here; Champagne, Cosmopolitan, Lemon Drop, Margarita and Mimosa. I tried the Champagne, which is dark chocolate that contains the natural popping candy (like the Pink Bubbly) above. The candy was delicious and quite interesting. The popping sensation was something I've never experienced before...really, like champagne bubbles in your mouth!
Here are brief descriptions for the other four which all have inventive and unexpected flavor combinations:
Cosmopolitan - Cranberry with a subtle twist of lime. Creamy white chocolate center surrounded with dark chocolate
Lemon Drop - Sour lemon drop with raw sugar crystals and a creamy finish. White chocolate shell.
Margarita - A perfect blend of sweet and sour lime margarita with a coarse salt "rim".
Mimosa - Tangy orange with a surprise - all natural pop rock candy, creamy white chocolate center wrapped in dark chocolate
If you've been reading this blog for some time, you've seen this cookie whopper before. This monster weighs almost half a pound and is called the "Toffee Crunch Cookie" from Carol's Cookies of Highland Park, IL. It is made with real butter and brown sugar with plenty of toffee and dark chocolate chunks; absolutely sinful! The explanatory card even warns that you "may need to seek professional help after finishing this one". I prefer to think of this as a multi-day cookie; responsible munchers can make this last for at least three days. (The photo does not do justice to the enormous size of this thing!)
As you can see, this trunk contained quite a sweet Valentine's Day celebration. Taste Trunk really delivered with this hefty box. My only regret is that I snapped too quickly and paid around $36; I believe it was actually available for about $30 at one point in the marketing run-up to Valentine's Day. Lesson learned---do your due diligence!
Because there is such a wide variety of trunk themes and price points, Taste Trunks make great gifts. At the moment, they have 19 different types of trunks available with prices ranging from $28 to $120. For the single purchase trunks, you can see exactly what will be in the trunk. Four of the trunks are available as multi-month purchases--Gourmet, Sweet, BBQ and Healthy. Of course, the sky's the limit with "The "Create A Trunk" option which lets you choose from hundreds of products. What you can count on with all Taste Trunk selections is handpicked artisanal quality products and superior customer service.
Taste Trunk discount codes are much harder to come by than they used to be so I recommend stalking their site and Facebook page for promotions and sale items. At the time of this post, the Healthy Chef Trunk (normally $35) is available for just $28 on the site. Also you can get a $10 credit by joining their e-mail list.
Hope everyone had a lovely Valentine's Day! (If you didn't, just keep in mind that St. Valentine was single!)
Cheryl
Disclosure: Views and opinions expressed in this blog are
strictly my own. Product discussed in this post was purchased by Lone
Star Shopper. Post does not contain referral or affiliate links.
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