Try the World Subscription Box Review

Try the World Review

I’d been wanting to subscribe to Try the World for a long time, so when I saw their recent special offering a free Portugal and Brazil box with the purchase of their new Michelin box, I jumped on it! (yes, I spent my own money, this review is NOT sponsored). Read on for my Try the World review…

What’s in the boxes?

Try the World boxes are generally themed around a country, and have a mix of ready to eat snacks and ingredients you can use in your home cooking.

First up, the Michelin box, which is curated by Michelin and Try the World.

It includes Tartufata Truffle Sauce from Italy, Paine d’epices (spiced bread) Baking Mix from France, Mini Pineapple Cakes from Taiwan, Blackberry Jam from England, Darling Sweet Toffee from South Africa, K’ekua Hot Chocolate Tablets from Mexico, Date Spread from Israel, and Gingersnaps from Sweden.

There was also a large insert describing the items and offering recipe suggestions:

The Portugal box includes Apple Cinnamon Black Tea, Olivais du Sol Olive Oil, Codfish Seasoning, Piri Piri Hot Sauce, Rare Jams Rocha Pear and Port Wine Jam (and a tin of jack mackerel that I accidentally knocked off the table and didn’t include in the photo below).

The Brazil Box includes Churrasco Sauce, Churraasco Spice Mix, Goiabada Guava Paste, Parana Special Origin Ground Coffee, Jaboticaba Jam, and Pacoquita Peanut Candy.

But how do they taste?

I won’t review every single item from the boxes, but here’s my opinion on a bunch of them:

The first thing I did was grab all the sweets that required no preparation, brew up some of the coffee from the Brazil box, and start sampling!

Jamboticaba Berry Jam

I spread this on rye toast, because it was the only bread I had in the house–and it was good! Smooth and plummy, the jam tastes like fruit, without any distractions. A little like fruit leather, actually.

Gingersnap cookies

Thin, crunchy, buttery, with a nice burst of ginger flavor. These are what I was craving over the holidays!

Pineapple cakes

Just not good. The pineapple filling doesn’t really taste like pineapple, and the “cake” is crumbly and too dry. I like that they’re not over sweetened, but that’s the only nice thing I can say about them. Maybe they’re better fresh?

Toffee

I don’t know why I’m reviewing this one, because I don’t like toffee. Is toffee always this hard? (the boyfriend says it’s normal to feel like it might break your teeth at first. he also proceeded to eat most of the box).

Pacoquita Peanut candy

I like that’s it’s simply made, with just peanuts, sugar and salt. These were good, if a little too sweet for me– but it is marketed as a candy bar. The boyfriend says it tastes like peanut butter fudge.

Parana Coffee

Nice medium roast coffee, not a revelation, but I think this is what’s missing from the experience.

Apple Cinnamon Black Tea

Nothing exotic, but a nice tea. Many fruit flavored teas taste fake to me; this was just yummy and subtle.

Pear & Port Wine Jam

Good, though I don’t taste pear and port so much as honey and black pepper.

Truffle Sauce

They recommended adding it to omelets, but my omelets are always a disaster, so I just spread some on my scrambled eggs. It’s made of mushrooms, olive oil, olives…and 1% truffles.

The flavor is intense and super sharp, and not in a good way. Maybe it’s the olives or bad olive oil? I like olives, but this is terrible. You taste some of the earthiness of the mushrooms after the initial hit of sharpness, but it’s not enough to make the spread palatable.

This went in the trash along with the pineapple cakes; two strikeouts from the Michelin box.

Guava Paste

After googling to see what I could do with the guava paste from the Brazil box, I settled on these easy turnovers.

I’d probably go a little lighter on the cream cheese next time, but they were good! The paste was concentrated, yet not too sweet, and really didn’t even need the cream cheese to be delicious. Guava paste is easy to pick up on Amazon, so I’ll probably buy more to experiment with.

Hot Chocolate Tablets

The “tablets” are big discs of chocolate, sugar and cinnamon; you break off half a disc or so, warm with milk in a saucepan, and voila! It’s similar to my favorite Moonstruck hot chocolate. It might not replace my standby, but I’ll definitely be using these over the winter.

Pain d’epices

The French spiced bread mix was was easy to make, just add warm milk and honey to the mix, then bake. And it’s yummy! Dense and sweet (you really taste the honey), with warm spices and hints of pepper. Well balanced, but even better with some salted butter to offset the sweetness.

This round didn’t photograph as yummy as it was–possibly because I was eager to actually eat it, rather than spend time styling! But you get the idea. I tried out the hot sauce on top of my avocado and fried egg toast, and the last two spreads shared space on toast.

Piri Piri Hot Sauce

This might be my new favorite hot sauce. Not too hot, so you can apply liberally, it has an interesting fruity/ citrusy/ vinegary complexity.

Blackberry Jam

I like it! Sweet, but a little bit tart, this is something I’d buy again.

Date Spread

I was concerned that this would be too much concentrated sweetness, and better with a cheese to offset it. Turns out, it’s actually really nice. Similar to the texture and sweetness of apple butter– but clearly made with dates, I still wouldn’t mind some cheese, but it’s just fine on toast. I’ll definitely be experimenting more with this one.

Olivais du Sol Olive Oil

Not pictured, but I’ve been using this for cooking. It’s a decent, mild olive oil, but doesn’t have the fruitiness that I love in my standby olive oil.

Would I buy again?

Overall, Try the World’s selections were more hit than miss. Some items were just what I was hoping for: new, interesting and yummy. Others weren’t to my taste, or were total flops (like the terrible truffle sauce and pineapple cakes from the Michelin box). The buy one box, get two free deal that I snagged made it worthwhile, but I’m not sure if I’d regularly spend $30-$40 on each box.

Try the World also offers customized boxes, smaller boxes, as well as the ability to purchase some individual items that have appeared in past boxes. I’m thinking about giving the customized boxes a try in the future.

If you’re thinking about subscribing, watch out for deals, or you can use this link to get a free box when you subscribe. (make sure to remember to pause or cancel your subscription if, like me, you just want to try a box or two).