NatureBox Review (Revisited)

Some of you may have read my reviews of NatureBox back in the summer, where I had explained why I canceled and why I was disappointed in the service overall, if you haven’t and you’re interested for context, please go HERE.

I cancelled back in August and did not hear anything from the company after that point. However, last month I received an e-mail from a CEO of NatureBox. Upon reading my review, he became very concerned and upset about what had happened, and apologized to me repeatedly. He assured me that his staff was doing everything they could to learn from the situation and hopefully grow from it as well. I thought that while the e-mail was a little bit late, I still appreciated the sentiment and accepted his offer to send me some of their snacks as a way to thank me for my honesty.

I thought that since it’s been quite awhile since I’ve had any of the NatureBox snacks, I would take the offer as an opportunity to give an updated review of what I think. I will not retract my statements previously made about the company, as I think telling the truth is very important, however I am using this as an opportunity to show that they did try to make it right with me, even though it was a bit too late. Even so, I felt it was only fair for me to do a review of what I thought of the snacks that were sent to me.

1. Honey Dijon Pretzels

I am addicted to the Snyders Honey Mustard pretzels, and these taste exactly like them. These were the very first thing that caught my eye and I was immediately impressed with the flavor. They tasted super fresh and had a very satisfying crunch. These would be a great alternative to a less-healthy potato or tortilla chip. I only wish the bag was larger! Definitely a good start to the box.

2. Lone Star Snack Mix

This is where NatureBox starts to falter a bit. What makes Graze so delicious is that they have a large variety in their snack mixes. A bag full of BBQ flavored nuts gets old pretty quick, and while these have a nice BBQ flavor and were nice and fresh, I got sick of eating them very quickly. There are also some multi-seed chips thrown into the mix, which are very sparse and almost undetectable in the mix. They also don’t have a very good flavor. Overall this is a good snack if you like nuts, but if you want a bit more variety, this isn’t a good choice.

3. Fuji Apples

Oh god…so, so boring. I mean, look: dried apples are great. But a bag FULL of dried apple rings is just so redundant. These tasted well enough and were fresh, but I had maybe 2 before I was done with the whole bag and passed them off to my roommate. An example of how these could be remedied is to put them in a dried fruit medley, like with some dried blueberries or raisins. The apples on their own are just too bland, and were crying for a more tart fruit to be mixed in with them. NatureBox could benefit from someone coming in and doing more exciting blends of snacks.

4. Mango Almond Bites

Not a huge fan of mango, but I have had these fruit/rice squares before and I really enjoyed them once, and the second time they were very bland and stale. This time, the mango bites were fresh and crispy. These are a bit on the bland side, however I think it’s hard to make a rice cake very flavorful. NatureBox does a good job of mixing tart fruits into these little rice squares which makes them quite yummy. I think these are a great snack for kids, especially.

5. Whole Wheat Apple Pie Figgy Bars

I have had good experiences and bad experiences with the NatureBox figgy bars in the past, and these ones fell somewhere right in the middle. I still find that the whole wheat outer layer is a bit on the dry side, however, the yummy flavor of the apple filling more than made up for it. There are another great option for kids, or something to toss in your bag for a snack on-the-go because they are individually wrapped, which is excellent!

 

Overall Feelings

I think that it was really nice of NatureBox to reach out to me after so many months and give their apologies and an offer to make it right. I understand that companies go through growing pains and may have issues with one or two people on their customer service team at any given time. I do hope that NatureBox read my past review and saw something that needed to be addressed, and did so.  

Would I resubscribe?  

No. I think that the snacks that were sent to me were nice overall, but they are still lacking in excitement and occasionally in flavor. What draws me to the competitors of NatureBox is that competitors snacks are more exciting to eat. There are more fruit medleys, more fruit/nut mixes, more options overall to customize and rate your snacks etc. I am also still a bit weary of their practices in that many of my past snacks have come to me tasting old or stale, yet the expiration date was still a month away. Something about that just didn’t sit right with me, and still doesn’t. I cannot say whether or not they have fixed those issues based on one box alone, but I will say it was a nice gesture on the part of NatureBox, and I definitely feel a lot less resentment toward them after what happened.