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War Foodie Subscription Box Review – July 2015

Lindsey Morse
ByLindsey MorseJul 28, 2015 | 6 comments

War Foodie Subscription Box Review - July 2015 - Box

War Foodie is a monthly subscription box that sends quality American foods to those living overseas. They specialize in sending care packages (including items like coffee, tea, peanut butter, granola, and hot sauce) to expats and military service members.

War Foodie Subscription Box Review - July 2015 - Inside

Using the War Foodie website, subscribers can pick out what types of items they’d like to receive each month. Flavors rotate (if “tea” is selected, for example, a different kind will be sent in each box), and items can be added or removed from future shipments at any time.

War Foodie Subscription Box Review - July 2015 - Unwrapped

In addition to sending a box to yourself or someone you know, War Foodie offers the option to donate a box to an eligible service member. Donations can be made anonymously, if desired.

This box was sent to us for review purposes. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)

War Foodie Subscription Box Review - July 2015 - Contents

The Box: War Foodie

The Cost: $7 per item + $15 flat rate shipping

The Products: Coffee, tea, sauces, and snacks.

 Ships to: US and worldwide. (International shipping requires an APO/FPO/DPO address.)

War Foodie Subscription Box Review - July 2015 - BBQ

Pineapple Habanero BBQ Sauce by Desert Smoke - $8

BBQ sauce, especially good BBQ sauce, is extremely difficult to find abroad, so I’m happy to see that it’s one of the item categories that War Foodie has decided to feature. This BBQ sauce is made with pineapple, habanero chile peppers, and southwestern chiles and is nicely sweet and spicy. It’s recommended for use on poultry, pork, white flakey fish, and shellfish- or as a dipping sauce.

War Foodie Subscription Box Review - July 2015 - PB

Pacific Beach Signature Peanut Butter (12 oz.) - $7.99 (on sale for $6.99)

War Foodie operates out of San Diego; so many of the brands they work with are California-based. Pacific Beach Peanut Butter comes from La Mesa, California, and they made a range of peanut butters and flavored spreads. “Our Signature Peanut Butter” contains a light crunch of toffee and is really tasty. I don’t eat peanut butter very often, but I could eat this out of the jar with a spoon.

War Foodie Subscription Box Review - July 2015 - Granola

Safari Crunch Berry Snakey Granola (11 oz.) - $8

I get a lot of granola in subscription boxes, and I think this might be the best tasting granola I’ve ever received. It’s crunchy and packed with nuts, seeds, spice, honey, and dried fruit. The flavor is excellent, and I’m impressed to see that it’s fairly low in sugar, fat, and sodium, too!

War Foodie Subscription Box Review - July 2015 - Tea

Lights Out Tea Blend by Blend Bee (2.5 oz.)- $9.38

(I believe Lights Out is a blend made exclusively for this box, so I’ve linked to a similar blend on the Blend Bee site.)

This Lights Out tea blend contains ashwaganda root, orange peel, chamomile, lavender, dandelion root, peppermint, nettle leaf, licorice root, stevia leaf, and honey extract. It’s a calming blend that aids digestion and promotes relaxation and better sleep.

War Foodie Subscription Box Review - July 2015 - TeaDetail

Blend Bee is from San Diego, and I had a great time browsing their website. They offer a make your own blend option, which I think is such a great idea! You select which teas you’d like to blend together and then name your blend (your custom name is printed on the tea’s label). At $14.99 for ¼ lb of tea, I think the pricing is pretty great. I know what my tea-loving friends are getting this holiday season!

The Verdict: I’m very impressed by the quality of the products included in this box from War Foodie. All of the items are delicious, and I think they’ve done a great job of picking food categories that are difficult to find abroad. At this time, it seems like they’re working with only a handful of brands, so I hope they add more in the future. I think monthly subscribers, in particular, might appreciate a bit more variety. In terms of value, this box is a little different from the boxes I typically review. Usually, I’ll add the product cost with the cost of shipping to look at total cost vs. value, but I don’t think it’s fair to do that with this box. Instead, I think it’s more appropriate to consider item value and shipping value separately. War Foodie charges $7 per item, which is a great value (since all the items in the box retail for $7 or more). Shipping is a flat $15. While this isn’t a great deal if you’re shipping to someone within the US, I think it’s certainly a fair price to pay to ship a care package overseas. I’d like to see War Foodie introduce another, cheaper shipping option for domestic shipping, but I understand that’s not their core focus. Still, I think this is a great way to send a care package to a loved one overseas, and I like that they offer the option to donate boxes to eligible service members.

What do you think of War Foodie? Do you have a loved one living or stationed abroad who would enjoy this subscription?

Lindsey Morse
Lindsey Morse

Lindsey is a professional baker, cold brew coffee addict, and rosé aficionado who loves writing about food and wine. When she’s not sharing her love of subscription boxes with the world, you’ll find her in the podcasting studio, perfecting her cake decorating techniques, or cursing her way through the New York Times daily crossword puzzle. 


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6 comments

Marie

Being a retired Air Force member that spent 10 of my 20 years in the Air Force overseas, I disagree about the overseas shipping being a good deal, since the overseas address has to be an APO/FPO/DPO address. On the USPS website it states that shipping is same as domestic shipping and if you use their large box (for APO/FPO/DPO addresses only) that you will save $2. APO/FPO/DPO addresses have mail shipped by the USPS to the departure port and from their they are placed on a military airplane/ship and sent to the overseas area at no additional charge. The only difference is you have to fill out a customs form listing all items in the box.

Also, unless the member is deployed their duty station most likely has a commissary that carries alot of US food items for them to purchase.

I put the USPS website as my website so that you can read about shipping to military addresses yourself, the only thing incorrect on the USPS website is that you should include the service members rank on the package as this is a force protection issue. If you have a service member overseas they will tell you not to put their rank on the package when you ship them mail.

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Isaac

Hi Marie,
War Foodie is still really new and figuring out ways to get more efficient and cost effective all the time. We’ve heard repeated concerns over shipping cost. We’re at the drawing board and looking at analytics for the cost of not only shipping but also handling and packaging material. We expect that when our little startup scales a bit, we will be able to decrease cost in all these areas, but we don’t want to find ourselves in a situation where we have to raise shipping prices in response to our own poor planning and poor math. So what we can do is offer discounts on shipping to help:
Coupons at Checkout:
FLYER: Get free shipping on first box
3CHEERS: Get $5 off shipping each month for 3 month plan.
STRIVEFORSIX: Get 50% off shipping each month for 6 month plan.

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nana

I’ll have to disagree. When I’m living abroad (and being bi-national, I always am :-), what I miss are not just specific products, but specific brands. I don’t just want BBQ sauce, I want E&J’s – and if I can’t have that, then at least Jack Daniels bbq sauce. But that may just be me.

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anna

This is a great idea! My sister and her family just moved overseas, and I think they would love this box.

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Marissa

This is amazing! And yay for San Diego! *slightly bias here lol*

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Debra

I love this!

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