I have noticed this company, Graze, primarily as it is so close to my own moniker, Grazing Kate. The concept is that they deliver 'healthy' snacks through the post to your home or workplace, twice a week and you hand over your credit card details and end up paying £ 3.49/ box, including delivery. I think this is aimed at people with office jobs who know they snack unhealthily whilst at their desk. The aim is to replace the old crisps / kitkat / another kitkat routine with healthier alternatives in snack-size portions.
My first pack contained Korean Chilli Rice Crackers (a guilty pleasure), Sticky Choccy Pudding (chocolate buttons and two types of raisin), Pitted Kalamata Olives with Herbs and Milkshake Mix (white chocolate discs, dried strawberries and bananas). My daughter and I ate the Milkshake Mix straight after school today - they were delicious, and we kidded ourselves that they were healthy.
Value for money? I guess if I were a City Slicker (oh, yes, I once was, hard to believe, but that's another story) these would be convenient, a bit trendy and not too expensive compared with other products within the Square Mile.
However..... I'm an unslick, unhip Devon food blogger who minds her pennies, so after the first pack (free of charge) and second pack (half price), I shall cancel my regular order.
They claim their packaging is as eco and recycled as they can be, although anything in such small packets (within a packet, within a packet) like this is going to involved an excess of packaging. But at least they've tried. And I really like the little bamboo cocktail stick for picking up olives. And I liked it arriving through the letterbox with the rest of the post. And I liked kidding myself that eating chocolate buttons with raisins is healthy.
This is the 'personalised' nutritional info sheet they include. I'm really off some of the 'matey chit chat' packaging companies use at the moment e.g. Innocent smoothies springs to mind 'contains 100% absolutely no squirrels', but I quite liked being addressed by name:
'so Katy, how healthy is this box....?'
'Er....not very. But thanks anyway.'
10 comments:
This would probably work very well in the USA where snacking can result in the filling of very large pants. It's hard to beat a nice crisp apple though
Actually I think this could work, for those of us that are strapped to our desks and end up eating all those chips and bars, this could be a nice healthy alternative.
I tried Graze as well but found I was just eating all the stuff because it was there rather than snacking when I really needed to. So I cancelled my order after the free ones as well!
Thanks, Legend, Medifast and GC for your comments.
Legend, agreed, about the apple, bit concerned about filling of large pants!
Medifast - absolutely - I would have used Graze when I had a London desk job
GC - yep, these boxes were consumed in addition to my usual food - snap!
I guess it would work for some,but nothing could be healthier than making your own snack to bring at the office, or bringing some fresh fruit.
Thanks for this interesting write-up.
And interesting you are off the matey chit-chat marketing speak. Yes, it has probably had its day.
Hey, when I bought a box into school, I became the most popular girl in the class. Then was left by myself five minutes later, alone, with no snack left.
Hi there Kate!
My name is Steve Walters and I recently started blogging at http://www.eatingbangkok.com, which is currently being updated with recipes, but in the next few months will be my vehicle for covering the food and restaurant scene in Bangkok Thailand.
I am now in the process of meeting as many food bloggers as I can and I found your site http://grazingkate.blogspot.com/ recently and was pretty impressed. I've added your site to my Foodie Blogs list here: http://www.eatingbangkok.com/foodie-blogs/ and would also like to add you to my blogroll.
If you could add my site to your blogroll and write back to let me know it has been added (foodie [at] eatingbangkok.com) I will add you to mine as well and the exchange would be greatly appreciated!
As you might imagine I am very excited to get moved to Bangkok and get started on covering the food scene there as I feel it is an area that isn't well covered by English speaking bloggers. I plan on adding loads of great reviews, pictures and even video and will be holding contests as well. It should be fun, entertaining and informative for everyone that visits.
Thank you so much in advance for adding me to your blogroll and I look forward to reading your posts (I've subscribed!) and maybe even featuring some of your own posts as I do plan on a weekly roundup of Thai themed recipes and posts from other food bloggers.
Warm regards,
Steve
P.S. If you are on Twitter I would love to have you as a follower and I follow back:
http://www.twitter.com/eatingbangkok
I took Graze up on their offer in the Observer last autumn and a follow up one just last month. I blogged about it here - http://justgai.blogspot.com/2010/10/grazing.html
As you can see I came to pretty much the same conclusions as you do ie good idea but a bit pricey for us non city types. However it has given me a few ideas for the homemade snack box I might one day get round to taking into work/on a journey etc.
I live in Bristol and regularly holiday in Cornwall. I was therefore interested to read your review of the Porthminster Beach Cafe. We used to eat there regularly but despite your comments on the fish and chip supper, it is now out of our normal price bracket. Thankfully there are other good restaurants in St Ives. The Porthgwidden Beach Cafe and Blas Burger are our favourites. I'd recommend either on your next visit.
Keep up the good work
My son had a box or two of these last year. Perhaps he did what you did and had the free box and the half-price one. I didn't ask him. I was the one who had to dispose of the packaging, and it was mainly cardboard. I think there were plastic inserts inside the main box but I can't remember if they were recyclable or not. Still I think reducing our waste and also the amount of stuff to be recycled is a good thing, so think it would be better and cheaper for people to buy packs of their favourite snack items and take them to work in reusable pots. It also means you have more control over which snacks you have. Busy people could make their pots up at the weekend for the coming week, but it would only take a minute or two to do it daily.
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