April The Vegan Kind subscription box

I've been wanting to get a vegan subscription box for a while as a way of helping me get a better picture of what products are actually available.  Here in the UK there doesn't seem to be a lot of options, but then I found The Vegan Kind, saw that they already had some great reviews, and decided to give them a try.  They have two types of subscription boxes, the Lifestyle Box, which is a monthly subscription at £10 per month and £3.15 postage, (this is also available worldwide) or the Beauty Box, which is a 3 monthly subscription at £15 per box and £3.15 postage (not available worldwide).  I did think about the Beauty Box - just for a second - but seeing as I'm trying to downsize the number of products I have it seemed a little bit silly to start having more items coming in.  Of course, once I've downsized completely.......

My first box arrived last Saturday morning (I was actually still in bed so my lovely partner collected it from the door for me) and, of course, I opened it straight away.

The first thing on top was the information sheet which details information about the recipe sheet and the campaign of the month.  This time it's Teen VGN, of which 10p of every April box goes towards.  On the back is a description of each item, their cost, and the companies' websites.

Next is the recipe card for Cashew Cream Cheese by Natalie Tamara from Tofu Diaries.  It looks delicious and I'll definitely be giving this a go to put in the wraps I like to make. I would also recommend Natalie's blog - very inspiring.

The first bit of food in the box was the Eat Real Hummus Chips (£0.79).  As you can see they didn't even make it to having a photo taken until they were opened and devoured.  I've had the Eat Real Quinoa Chips and I absolutely love those so I was definitely curious to see if I would also like these.  I wasn't 100% certain about the flavour and don't think I'll buy these specific ones again, but that didn't seem to stop my partner and me finishing them off.  There is definitely something very morish about them.

The next item that caught my eye were the Vego Vegolino Pralines (£5.29), which again didn't even manage to get photographed before I broke into them (I just saw the word pralines and couldn't help myself).  These are lovely, soft and just delicious.  I'm trying to reduce the amount of sugar there is in my diet and I think these will be just perfect to keep as a little but yummy fix at times when I just can't help myself.  Better one little bit of praline rather than an entire chocolate bar.  I love that they're Fair Trade as well.

The Clearsping Tamari Roasted Soybeans with Tomato and Herb (£0.99) for some reason reminded me of the roasted nuts I used to get as a child on planes, except those were disgusting and these are tasty and very easy to eat.  When it comes to snacks I definitely prefer food that have a bit of a crunch to them and these definitely fit the bill.  Certified organic, high in fibre and protein, and a source of magnesium, think I will be looking out for these in the future.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to try the Greedie Goddess Mango, Passion, and Carrot Smoothie Bites (£1.00) as they contain bananas in them (I'm guessing from the ingredients list about 69% banana) and I am allergic to bananas.  I know that sounds so weird, but unfortunately eating bananas gives me stomach problems and makes my skin itch.  So I gave them to my partner to try.  He thought they tasted nice, but really wasn't a fan of the texture.  He is very particular about his food though, so if you like a soft chewy texture you'll probably like these.

The last food product was the BakedIn Belgian Chocolate Mug Brownie Mix (£1.49).  The last time I tried a cook in a mug cake mixture the result wasn't particularly pleasant and tasted very artificial so I was interested to see what this would be like.  This product was so much better than the previous mug cake I tried that they're not even in the same league.  This tasted just like a brownie and was lovely and soft.  The only problem I had was that there was a little too much for me and I'm one of those people who can only eat a tiny piece of brownie.  But, if you can happily eat a muffin size amount of brownie I would get some of these, take them to work on a Wednesday (apparently the actual most depressing day of the week), and make yourself a little mug of Vegan happiness.

The last product was perhaps the item I was most excited about and it was the Humblestuff Lemon Myrtle Multi Surface Cleaning Spray (£5.00).  I'm not really a fan of cleaning so anything that makes it more enjoyable to a bonus.  This item has definitely helped and I love this product.  There really isn't anything not to like - it's made in Scotland, is made up of only three products, all the packaging is recyclable, it smells great, and works really well.  I normally make my own cleaning products, but have been eyeing up their Etsy store after using this.  Specifically their toilet freshener, which I don't make myself.

Reaching the end of a box of goodies is never good, but what I liked about this is that it shows just how little packaging The Vegan Kind use.  The box itself is made of recycled cardboard, but was sturdy enough to protect the products on its own, and there were only a few bits of spaghetti packaging used predominantly to protect the head of spray bottle.  With other companies I've ordered from there's always been a lot of packaging and lots of plastic, so I really appreciate that TVK have used so little.

If you were to buy all these products on their own it would cost you £14.56 (not including P&P if you ordered them online) so this box is also cost effective.  I'll definitely be keeping my subscription up and using the products to be my snacks for the month.......now where are those pralines.