Friday, July 31, 2015

Treatsie Gourmet Sweets Review, July 2015 + Double Sweets Code!

After the bullet proof packaging and extraordinary customer service efforts required to protect the chocolate in Treatsie's shipments last summer, I knew better than to expect any chocolate before October this year!  But I think the July box is as good as a gourmet treats box can be without chocolate. All the items arrived in perfect condition, which indicates some really careful curation considering that the temperatures where I live have hovered right around 100 degrees for the past week and a half. 

In case you're new to Treatsie, they send a box full of gourmet sweets each month. The cost is $19.95 but you can get that down to $16.92 a month if you subscribe to the annual plan. There is a $4.95 per month shipping fee. In each box, they feature three different vendors and the value is around $25.  Boxes ship around the third week of each month so Treatsie is one of the last subscription boxes to arrive every month.

Inside the July box were two packages of cookies, a bag of toffee and three licorice bars: 


On the back of the information card is a recipe for Vanilla Bean Lemonade. Treatsie doesn't usually send recipes so I'm not sure what prompted this one except the obvious association between lemonade and summer.  This one uses only vanilla beans, sugar, water and lemon juice.  Looks good and I just might try it.



When I saw the three fruit bars with LICORICE spelled in big black letters on each one, the alarm bells in my head started clanging.  I can't stand licorice.  But I was somewhat taken aback when I saw that they looked like fruit bars and were labeled with the flavors Mango, Strawberry and Cherry. Being extremely skeptical (and wanting to avoid even the slightest risk of licorice getting anywhere near my taste buds), I studied the ingredient list like I was cramming for a final. Not finding anything offensive, I decided to try the tiniest taste.  Guess what?  These are NOTHING like traditional black or red licorice.  They taste like very chewy fruit roll-ups.  I've about polished off the mango flavored one.  When you get past those huge black letters, it says these are all natural "American Style" and "handmade with real fruit" by Anya's Licorice. I must admit; I've been forced to re-evaluate my stance on the subject of licorice!


    
Next are two packages of cookies from Wackym's Kitchen (in Dallas, of all places). Each package contains a stack of eight cookies that look like shortbread.  One package is full of Margarita cookies, made with fresh lime and sea salt.  These are very crunchy and buttery with a hint of lime and a bit too much sea salt.



The second package contains Salted Caramel cookies which are brown sugar butter cookies topped with sea salt.  Both of these are interesting and tasty sweet and savory treats.



The Trail Mix Tennessee Toffee from Shotwell Candy is a delicious buttery toffee with the addition of sunflower seeds, dried cherries and raisins.  As somewhat of a toffee connoisseur, I can attest that this is REALLY good toffee.  In checking their website, I see that they also have traditional toffee and.....espresso toffee!  I am going to order both; this stuff is addictive.



I really wasn't expecting such a great box this month but Treatsie exceeded expectations and proved that it IS possible for me to get by a month or two without chocolate. By the way, Treatsie has a pretty good points system that really pays off if you're a regular subscriber.  You can earn points for each box you receive, any additional purchases you make or for referrals.  Those points add up quickly and can be redeemed for products in their on-line store.  Having forgotten about their points program, I recently discovered I had $35 worth piled up.  Having that much to spend in Treatsie's store is a NICE problem to have!

If you're ready to try Treatsie, use code FRBUCO01 or FBDOUBLESWEETS to get double the amount of sweets in your first box (that's more than $40 worth of goodness)!

Thanks for reading,

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 may contain referral or affiliate links.

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