First of all, what? Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s what you’re asking yourself right now.
Nüssli118° is a raw foods store in North Cambridge, Massachusetts. They sell a variety of snacks, smoothies, and juices. It’s not fancy shmancy (or is the correct description “celebrity hip”?) like Sakara Life. Their website isn’t filled with slick sounding product descriptions like Splendid Spoon (which I might try some day because they do make their soups sound very tasty!).
Now, I’m not vegan or a raw foodist (I’m not even vegetarian) in any way, but I do get curious about the raw food culture. I guess it’s because I do like diversity in my meals, and healthy is always appreciated.
I’ve had a some Nüssli118° products in the past. There was some sort of ginger round, chocolate pecan squares, and their chocolate cashew smoothie. All of which were delicious. So, I’ve been really curious about the Nüssli118° day tote for a few months now.
From their website:
The Nüssli118° Kitchen Share Day Tote is a day’s worth of delicious meals, drinks, and snacks delivered to your home or office once a week. The products are ready-to-eat right out of the mason jar or to be gently warmed, served, and savored. Either way, they will nourish, satisfy, and energize you throughout your day. Each Kitchen Share Day Tote includes 2 drinks, 3 meals, 1 savory, and 2 sweets. We look at what’s in season, combine fresh, great tasting, high quality ingredients, and create delicious nutrient-dense meals. They are all organic, plant-based, and ready-to-eat, just enjoy!
Note, you can save money on the delivery fee by picking up the tote yourself. The tote I picked up was this:
Week of April 10, 2017 Kitchen Share Day Tote:
Pineapple Turmeric FrescaVanilla Chai SmoothieChia Pudding Topped with Kiwi, Orange, and AppleButternut Squash SoupTaco SaladGarlic & Herb CrackersSuper Dark Chocolate RoundsLemon Ginger Square
If you go through my photos, you’ll notice that I didn’t get the taco salad. That’s because I’m allergic to raw celery and raw carrots. So, the store provided their mango kale salad as a substitute.
Overall, I liked this salad. I just wished that there had been a bit more of it. Besides kale and mango, there was jicama, lemon juice, olive oil, maple syrup and red pepper flakes. And since I was still hungry, I went ahead and had the soup. (Afterward, I remembered that each jar in my tote was technically a meal. Oh well.)
You can have the soup hot or cold. It was a really nice warm spring day in Boston, so I went for it cold. I liked this meal too. The cranberries and parsley helped to jazz up the otherwise plain tasting squash soup. I might have forgotten that cashews were in the soup and topped it with a tablespoon of hemp seed from my pantry.
Regarding the snacks, this is where Nüssli118° really shines.
No surprise, the super dark chocolate rounds were my favorite from the tote. The rosemary crackers were a close second. The lemon ginger squares were my least favorite only because it’s a little too sweet for my personal preference. But the texture is great. It’s got crunch from the nuts but it’s not hard on the teeth. The brightness of the lemon flavor shines through, but I’m not sure I could taste ginger much. At the end of the day though, I’m always pro-chocolate. The rounds are quite dense, but the chocolate flavor satisfies quite nicely.
Finally, I had the chia pudding for breakfast the morning after I picked up the tote. I was unsure if I was going to like it. Generally, I stay away from chia seeds because they get stuck in my teeth too easily. Maybe because I had let the chia pudding sit for so long, I didn’t really have an issue. It would have been boring if it hadn’t been for the fruit topping – apples, kiwi, and oranges – even though the pudding says it was spiced with cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, clove, and nutmeg. I could tell that the pudding wasn’t just chia, cashews, and water. However, the spices were really muted.
As for the drinks? The cashew vanilla smoothie was good. Not the best I’ve ever had, but certainly not the worst. It’s just a basic cashew smoothie. The tote list says vanilla chai, but the bottle I had was just vanilla. The ingredients were water, cashews, dates, coconut oil, vanilla, and Himalayan salt. The pineapple turmeric was probably my least favorite thing in the whole tote, and that’s just personal preference. I found the turmeric flavor to overpower every other flavor. The ingredient list is pineapple, water, mango, orange, lemon, maple syrup, turmeric, and cayenne. I could barely taste the pineapple. I really couldn’t taste any mango or orange.
So, would I do this again? Quite possibly. It’s not cheap. It’s $65 and then there’s a $10 deposit for the tote and the mason jars. If you return the tote and mason jars, you can get a $10 credit toward your next purchase. I like that the packaging is reusable, and am not against the deposit. Overall, the quality of everything is great. (And it had better be! Everything is organic, and some ingredients have been sprouted.) The experience has definitely given me ideas on things to make at home. It also makes me want to work on snack recipes. But chances are pretty high that I’ll probably be lazy and swing by Nüssli118° when I’m hankering for healthy crisps and sweets. (^_^)
Links:
http://nussli118.com/
Disclaimer – This post was not sponsored in any way. A family member purchased the tote for me as a gift. I just wanted to share my excitement.
Awesomesauce Eats 