Mrs Bishop's Bakes and Banter: What was in our May Degustabox?

This month's Degustabox had the theme of 'Picnic Box' - so it contained foods and drinks you might enjoy on a picnic - lots of ready to eat treats, and even some strong bread flour for baking your own loaf of bread to make sandwiches.

What was in our May Degustabox?

ZEO SOFT DRINK - £1.19 - Zeo are delicious all-natural, low calorie soft drinks. Blended with natural fruit juices, exotic botanicals and a splash of spring water. They're big on flavour, without the guilt! #CheatOnWater

CRABBIE'S ORIGINAL ALCOHOLIC GINGER BEER - £1.89 - Crabbie's, the UK's number 1 Alcoholic Ginger Beer is crafted for 6 weeks using real Asian ginger with a secret recipe using only a handful of ingredients. This product can be enjoyed as part of a gluten free diet. Find us in the beer/cider aisle of all leading supermarkets.

CADBURY DAIRY MILK PEANUT CARAMEL CRISP - £3.49 - This delicious new bar from the Cadbury Dairy Milk Big Taste range combines thick Cadbury Dairy Milk with a peanut filling, containing generous peanut pieces and crunchy crisps, all topped off with gooey caramel and peanut halves. Perfect for sharing with family and friends!

MOMA GLUTEN FREE RASPBERRY & COCONUT BIRCHER MUESLI - £3.20 - At MOMA, we think oats are the bees knees! Say hello to our gluten free Raspberry & Coconut Bircher Muesli - our speedy answer to overnight oats. Simply add yoghurt (or a diary free alternative), a splash of apples juice & voila - overnight oats in 5 minutes! Enjoy!

MILLIONS - 2 x £0.50 (chocolate) £0.60 (sour) - Millions - the tiny tasty chewy sweets that have been delighting kids and adults alike since 1992. This year, adding to the 9 fabulous flavours we have, amazing Milk Chocolate Covered Strawberry Millions and Sour Strawberry Millions...very moreish.

CEREAL LOVERS CRUNCHTIME NUGGETS - £1.59 - Cereal Lovers CrunchTime Nuggets are a deliciously crunchy new snacking concept to be the healthy way to energise and sustain your day. Nothing nasty in this snacking granola, all natural ingredients.

DELI KITCHEN SKINNI WRAP - £1.25 - Here at Deli Kitchen we're on a mission to reinvent mealtimes with a range of delicious new flatbreads - flatbreads with a twist, that are simple, handy and versatile. Diversify your mealtimes with our new Skinni Wrap, which is just 91 calories, and comes in a unique easy to fold shape.

HOMEPRIDE STRONG WHITE BREAD FLOUR - £1.50 - Homepride have been making great quality flour for over 50 years. The newest addition to our family is our strong white bread flour - made from 100% British wheat to help you bake the finest loaves and buns.

HIPPEAS IN HERBS WE TRUST CHICKPEA PUFFS - £1.50 - Hippeas is the all new range of organic chickpea puffs which is set to shake up the global snacking market with a bold brand story and purpose, clear health credentials and exciting flavour profiles. #PeasAndLove

PORTLEBAY POPCORN - £0.79 - Portlebay Popcorn is made using 100% natural ingredients, unrefined raw cane sugar, a splash of rapeseed oil and the finest butterfly corn from the Pyrenees. Hand popped in Devon, we're masters at bundling together that happy, sunny, care-free feeling that makes our popcorn the best it can be.

CANDY KITTENS ETON MESS SWEETS - £3.00 - Hello! We're Candy Kittens and we believe that life's too short for boring sweets. Championing British style and taste, we use the best possible ingredients to produce the finest quality gourmet sweets.

What We Thought

The Zeo soft drink was really lovely - refreshing but natural tasting and uncharacteristically low in calories - I'm so used to used to passing on drinking fruit juice/fizzy drinks because of the high calorie content, it was nice to drink something a bit different without compromising on calories, especially appreciated during last weeks hot weather!

Liam tried the Crabbie's Alcoholic Ginger Beer first, apprehensively, as he's not a huge fan of Ginger Beer, and unsurprisingly it wasn't to his taste - I however LOVE Ginger Beer and found this lovely and fiery yet still refreshing with that slight burn of alcohol after swallowing. I'd love to drink this stuff at a summer picnic or BBQ.

The Cadbury Dairy Milk Peanut Caramel Crisp was a family sized bar, meant to feed 8 people 3 large squares each...Liam and I loved this chocolate so much that we ate the whole lot in just two sittings, on two consecutive nights - oops! It's seriously the tastiest bar they've created in a long time - think Snickers with Cadbury chocolate! 😍

I have used the whole box of MOMA Raspberry & Coconut Bircher Muesli in just two weeks, I've had it for breakfast every single morning with Greek yoghurt and fresh berries, it's truly delicious. I love the overnight oats consistency it gives, mushier than your classic muesli or granola, its a really tasty breakfast staple that I look forward to every morning.

Bert was absolutely THRILLED to see a selection of sweets from Millions and Candy Kittens in this months box - lucky boy! Sweets aren't something Liam or I eat, but Bert informed us that they were tasty & he shared them with his auntie when she came to stay in half term.

There's a theme with this box...eating most of it super quickly as it was so delicious - we did the same with the Cereal Lovers CrunchTime Nuggets - they were such a tasty little snack (I'm a HUGE cereal lover!) and it felt good to know there was nothing nasty in them, just good old fashioned slow-release energy, perfect for that mid-afternoon slump!

The Deli Kitchen Skinni Wraps were the only fresh item in this month's box, and as they box arrived on a Wednesday when I'd already planned out our meals, I popped them in the freezer to be used at a later date - we use wraps often for fajitas and other similar dinners, so no doubt we'll get round to using them soon - I loved that fact that they're only 91 calories each as the ones we usually have are around 190 calories usually, so that's a big calorie saving!

As you all know, I'm rather big on baking, so a nice big tub of strong white bread flour from Homepride went down a treat with me, I can't wait to find some time to get my bake on - there's genuinely nothing better than freshly baked bread, right?

The thing I love most about my Degustabox delivery is when I discover totally new-to-me brands and product releases, I'd never heard of Hippeas before, but I'll be buying their chickpea puffs whenever I see them next in the supermarket - they were absolutely delicious, think of them like a coarser textured and much tastier version of a Wotsit but healthy and full of flavour. Connie, Bert and Liam all loved them too, one small packet just wasn't enough!

Finally, the Portlebay Popcorn in Sweet Thai Sriracha flavour was delicious - I'm a huge lover of all things super spicy and I get so disappointed when brands play it safe on the spice front - but this bag of popcorn was super fiery and so bursting with sweet Thai flavours at the same time, it pained me to leave half the packet for Liam to try, and I'd definitely choose it over a bag of crisps any day.

Our 3 TOP PICKS from this month's picnic themed box were actually really hard to choose, but I went for the MOMA Raspberry & Coconut Bircher Muesli, the Hippeas In Herbs We Trust Chickpea Puffs and the Cadbury Dairy Milk Peanut Caramel Crisp - all of which I'll be seeking out at the supermarket during our next big food shop.