I just found out that Maple no longer has bundles listed on their website, which I find quite unfortunate. In any case, their autumn box has arrived and I didn’t laugh too much this time.
The Maple Box Overview
Cost: $119 + shipping + tax
Value: $230~
Frequency: Quarterly
Cancellation Policy: Cancel by writing them at least 5 days before your next billing cycle.
Payment: Quarterly or prepay annually for discount.
Focus: “We source from socially and environmentally conscious, small and medium sized businesses primarily in Canada and the USA.”
Ships From: Coquitlam, BC
Established In: 2018
I keep forgetting that the magazine is one of the items. I’m looking at the table of contents and I can’t really say what the theme is of this season’s edition. I probably won’t read it anyway.
You can buy a bag of this size for only $5.50 online, but you can buy up to 25lbs for $150.
I tried this granola with some plain yogurt and I quite enjoyed it. The dark chocolate chunks are a nice touch of subtle sweetness. Although sugars (honey, cane sugar, and maple syrup) is the second ingredient, I didn’t find it overwhelmingly sweet. I think I would buy a bag if I saw it in the store. Upon later consumption I did encounter some burnt bits.
La Fourmi is a company that started in 2002 in Montreal with a mission to “create unique, healthy, and gourmet granola blends while promoting local producers of natural, organic and fair-trade ingredients.”
More supplements! The last ones weren’t too bad. I’m not sure if they made much of a difference, but I didn’t mind taking them – when I remembered, that is.
When this says “Garden of Life”, they’re not kidding. The non-medicinal ingredient list is an incredible amount of fruits and veggies. You’re supposed to take it with food, but I’m going to try it on its own.
It smells like a healthy juice and must be refrigerated after opening and consumed within 30 days.
I’m not usually bad at pouring things, but I definitely missed the little cup. It tastes like it wants to be delicious, but can’t. The initial taste is sweet and then turns into disgusting pretty quick. I understand why they suggest pairing it with food.
I’ve been having some health issues recently, so it will be interesting to see if this will have any impact.
This 450ml bottle retails online for $45.00 and contains only natural plant irons. This supplement is made in Canada using imported ingredients.
I quite enjoyed this little twist on chamomile tea. Ever since my friend Lauren served me lavender ice cream, I’ve realized how much I love lavender in food. It’s supposed to be calming, but I have a lot of anxiety right now, so I’m not so sure about that. It was delicious though.
One thing I have to point out is that the instructions say to use two tea bags for 240ml and to steep for 10 minutes. Why not just make bigger tea bags? Seems silly to use two, so I just used one. It tasted fine. There’s only 16 bags in the box, so I’d like it to last longer than 8 encounters.
Traditional Medicines is a company from California that specializes in wellness teas.
Ah, Maple’s summary of the product say for a truly medicinal cup, you need the 2 teabags and 10 minutes of steeping. You also need to cover it so that the volatile essential oils doesn’t escape with the steam. Fascinating.
Sometime during covid, when things were still weird, we did a chocolate tasting via Zoom. We received 4 pieces of dark chocolate through the post and discussed tasting notes and chocolate characteristics. That was my first encounter with Hummingbird chocolate, though they did not host the tasting. The tasting was an overall disappointing experience, but this chocolate is not. It’s definitely a dark chocolate with some fruity notes. I don’t know if it’s the type of chocolate I would go looking for, but it’s a good chocolate overall.
Hummingbird is a Canadian company based in Ontario.
I appreciate the art of this serum and the feel of the box. The smell isn’t the most pleasant thing, but it’s not totally awful either. It reminds me of something from my childhood, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. This beauty elixir contains 15 different botanicals and contains astaxanthin. I had never heard of it before. They say it is one of the most potent antioxidants ever discovered. Brief research cannot find a reputable source to back this up. Reminds me of the whole açai phase, when blueberries actually have more antioxidants. Blueberries are common, açai is exotic if you don’t live in Brazil.
Loa Skin is a Canadian company from Vancouver, BC. You can buy this 50ml bottle online for $59.
I don’t understand this one, but I do love the smell of beeswax. I also think it’s very cool that this is a secondary product that they make from the waste of their primary product: beeswax food wrap. You can grab one of these online for $24.
They say it’s windproof, but I’ll believe it when I see it. Tony bought us the adventure challenge book, which I am too much of a grump to enjoy, but one of the challenges was to make indoor smores. I didn’t understand where to get a mini campfire (they were suggesting gas ones). I would have been more inclined to appreciate the challenge if we had had one of these. In the end we just lit a fire outside and had smores on the lawn.
Abeego has its headquarters in Victoria, BC. It’s kind of amusing that it has its shop hours on its website, but no location. Go figure. You have to use the Google to find that.
I had some reservations about this one. Neroli and pepper? Sounds scary, though to be honest I had to look up neroli. Pepper is not something I willingly put on my skin. That’s any kind of pepper. When I dehydrated some habaneros this summer my hands stung for 3 days.
This somehow smells really good, and I’m happy to report I scrubbed one hand with it and no stinging effect has happened. I wasn’t really expecting it, as I think it would be bad for their business to produce something spicy. Although I’m looking at the ingredients now and I don’t recognize anything pepperlike there.
This 195g jar will set you back $22 online, though at the time of writing it is sold out. Om Organics is a plant-based cosmetic company based in Invermere, BC.
This is a pleasant-smelling natural body cream. This is a great time of year to have a good moisturizer. Refrigeration is recommended, which doesn’t make this the most accessible lotion.
Batch is a company based in Vancouver, BC. The owner used to work for both The Body Shop and Lush Cosmetics before starting his own brand.
Overall Impression
I thought this was a great box overall. I love the variety of the items and the effort put into the descriptions. This month’s box has an approximate retail value of $210, which isn’t too bad at all! It’s also great that all but one of the products come with discount codes for 20-30% off of future purchases!
wanderingfawn 