Towards the end of December I signed up to Sourced Box, a monthly subscription box filled with healthy snacks. Last year I started to be more mindful about what I ate and although I don’t think I’m unhealthy I do think it’s easy to slip into bad habits. I spend my time between Sheffield and Cambridge. In Cambridge there’s a fab health food shop called Revital and they have all the healthy snacks. In Sheffield I haven’t found anything quite like it. So, I decided to sign up for Sourced Box to try out new healthy snacks and become aware of interesting small businesses.
Some of you may know that I’ve cut dairy from my diet and I was delighted to find lots of dairy free products in the January box. I’m now onto my third box and I can assure you that each and every month the box has been packed full of delicious healthy treats.
Get 15% off your first Sourced Box
You can pop over to the Sourced Box website to find out about the founders but within this post I’ll be focusing on each of the brands I find in my box.
I buy a lot of Rude Health products, especially their almond milk. Rude Health was co-founded by Nick and Camilla Barnard in London. The brand have very strong business ethics and you can find out more about them on their website.
I really enjoyed the Mini Rice Thins. I used the bag over two days as snacks, it was generously filled. I added a little Meridian peanut butter with a slice of banana on top, delicious. When I spot these in the shops I’ll be stocking up.
Wyldsson was a new band to me. The brand was founded in 2012 by Dave McGeady and Daragh Whelan. They’ve since been supplying health food products to customers in 10 different countries.
This mix was called Organic Persian Mulberry and contained chopped cashews, almonds, hazelnuts, sunflower seeds, organic Persian mulberries and more. I sprinkled a few of the nuts on top of my rice flake porridge to give it extra texture and kept the rest of the pot in my handbag. They’re very tasty and I especially like mulberries.
Naturally Sassy Food was created to offer a delicious and energising handy snack you can carry around. All of the snacks are gluten free, refined sugar free, raw, dairy free and vegan. I was pleased to find the flapjack in my Sourced Box because I’d been following Sassy’s blog for a while. If you haven’t read it before make sure you pop over and have a read. She’s always sharing new and delicious healthy recipes.
The flapjack was filled with pecans, cashews, oats, lucuma powder and cinnamon. I really enjoyed the flapjack, it had a sweet and chewy texture. There are a couple of other flavours, I plan to try the red velvet one next.
I love all kinds of tea and I’m always trying out new brands. I was pleased to find a tea from Blue Bird Tea Co in my box. It’s a brand I’ve always heard people talk about but never got ’round to trying. Blue Bird Tea Co was founded in 2012 by Krisi and Mike. I like that most aspects of the business has been created in-house by Krisi and Mike. That includes, packaging design, packing the tea and everything in-between.
Phil and I enjoyed our cups of Dozy Girl before bed. It’s an ideal tea to help you wind down after a busy day. The tea is a blend of chamomile, lavender and rose. This is a very floral tea, the lavender and rose are the first notes you pick up in the tea. It’s a very soothing tea and we both enjoyed it. I would totally buy a full box of this tea but also on my hit list is Aniseed Balls.
Rebel Kitchen create dairy free drinks from coconut milk. The brand was founded in 2010 by Tamara and Ben Arbib. Rebel Kitchen are demonstrating that it’s possible to be a successful brand without sacrificing people’s health to reach your goals.
The drink was chocolatey, smooth and a real treat. It’s not something I’d buy on a regular basis but every now and then I’d like to give each of the other flavours a try. I have purchased the coffee Rebel Kitchen a couple of times since trying the cacao one and it’s equally as good. You won’t find refined sugar in any of the Rebel Kitchen products, instead they’re sweetened with date nectar.
There are 6 different Mylks available including; banana, orange oil, coffee, cinnamon, matcha green tea powder and of course, cacao. I haven’t seen the cinnamon one yet so I’ll be giving that a try if I manage to track it down. Even if you’re not dairy free this is totally worth a try. I’ve found them in my local Waitrose in Sheffield.
I’m not sure why I took the photo of these together, but we’re going to roll with it.
The Science Kitchen brand was founded in 2013 by trained scientists, Stephanie Pollock and Fatma Mansab. Their aim was to create exciting and nutritious foods. They have an wide collection of healthy treats on their site.
The Spicy Pizza is vegan and gluten, dairy, soya and nut free. The slices worked so well with hummus. They tasted like sun dried tomato and were tasty enough to even eat on their own. I’m keen to try more from the Science Kitchen soon.
Pip & Nut create deliciously nutritious and natural nut butters. The brand was founded by Pip and there’s a really cool page on the website showing her journey. As with many of the bands found within the Sourced Box the company has strong business values.
This little squeeze pack was so handy. I used a little on the rice thins and then the rest I had on top of a banana. I like that the pack could be kept in your handbag for an emergency nutty treat. The coconut and almond flavours work so well together and it made a nice change to just plain almond or peanut butter. I’ve already repurchased this and have found it in Revital in Cambridge or M&S in Sheffield. You can find a full list of stockists over on their website.
Pulsin was founded by Nick, Ben and Simon, three friends who met 15 yeas ago at university. The business is based in Gloucestershire and the product range is continuously growing.
This Maca Bliss Pulsin bar is one of my favourite raw chocolate brownies, it’s just so chocolatey. It’s vegan, gluten, dairy and GMO free. I enjoyed mine after a productive gym session alongside a big cup of tea.
Since trying this Pulsin bar I’ve picked up a few more from Revital in Cambridge. I particularly enjoyed the Raspberry & Goji brownie. I really liked the mix of chocolate and sharp berries, just delicious.
Love Raw was a totally new brand to me. It was founded in 2013 by Rimi. She had a passion to share healthy snacks made from clean ingredients.
The Rosehip & Lemon Bar is packed full of almonds, dates, sultanas, cashews, brazil nuts, rosehip and lemon oil. All ingredients are organic and the bar is gluten, dairy, wheat and soy free. I immediately picked up on the lemon in this bar and a slight floral taste quickly followed. I plan on picking a few more of these up when I’m back in Cambidge (Revital stock the best stuff)
Snact were founded in 2013 when founders, Ilana and Michael realised they both had a passion for food and sustainability. In the early days the founders would collect surplus fruit at London’s wholesale markets. The brand has grown quickly and I can tell why.
I really enjoyed this bag of Apple and Mango fruit jerky, it didn’t last long. You’ll be pleased to know that there are no nasty preservatives or additives hiding in the bag. Just real apple and mango. I’m hoping to find the Apple and Raspberry Snact bags soon but I haven’t found them stocked near me.
The Giving Tree was launched by Jonathan Newman, founder of CHI coconut water (there’s a bottle of that in the latest box). There are some cute illustrations on the website to demonstrate how the crisps are made.
The Giving Tree have broccoli, pumpkin, peach, strawberry, mango, apple and mixed veg crisps. The broccoli are surprisingly tasty. I really liked the texture of the little broccoli trees, they had a good crunch to them.
I’ve seen The Giving Tree crisps stocked in my local Holland & Barrett (Sheffield) and I’m fairly sure they had them in Revital at Cambridge. I plan on picking up a couple of packets this week as they’re currently on buy on get one half price. I hope they have the pumpkin ones.
I hope you enjoyed this post, I know it was quite long. I wanted to give you a little info on each of the small but mighty businesses within the first Sourced Box. My third Sourced Box has now arrived so you can see I’m still enjoying the subscription service. If you pop over to Snapchat you can see me showing off the contents of the third box.
Don’t forget that you can get 15% off your first box, I’d love to hear your thoughts.