I haven't done an SBS in goodness knows how long--it's been almost a year, I believe--because now that subscription boxes have become a 'thing,' a lot of the more cheaper companies have either since folded due to competition or hiked up their prices to support the demand. For someone on a budget, I can't see buying a $30-60 box just to sample it for an entry in this series, so I had to put it on hold for awhile while I found some more boxes in my price range.
What is it?
Urthbox is a monthly box service that specializes in providing health-conscious snacks and beverages. There are four types of boxes you can choose from (classic, diet, gluten-free and vegan) and all of the snacks are GMO-free, organic and natural. A couple of extras, such as energy, vitamin or mineral supplements, hygiene or skincare products, can also be included in your box.
How much does it cost?
Mini--6 products for $8.99/monthly
Small--12 products for $12.99/monthly
Medium--17 products for $26.99/monthly
Large--24 products for $36.99/monthly
These prices change if you'd like to purchase a 1, 3 or 6 month-long subscription. You can also buy an Urthbox for the workplace or purchase it for someone else as a gift in 6-month increments.
Sign-up and ordering:
Sign-up and ordering are both fairly easy; you can complete your order without needing to sign-up for the site first. After going to the "Get Started" link on the homepage, you select the box you want, followed by the monthly plan you'd prefer. Then you get to choose which of the four box types you want to receive, and the checkout page follows that. If you have a coupon code like I did, this is where you'll get to enter it. After that comes the confirmation page--you should receive a confirmation email as well--and the billing of your debit card, and on the 1st the new month's subscription begins so I'd suggest ordering this box at the beginning of the month to avoid getting two boxes.
Delivery and cancellation:
Delivery took a couple of weeks but everything arrived in good shape. The box wasn't damaged in any way and everything inside had been packaged well. Cancellation was what I had problems with from Urthbox. Instead of instant cancellation that you can do yourself from the website, which I would have preferred, you have to email your cancellation request to the support team before the 30th of the month to ensure you won't be billed for the next month's box. I'd suggest calling earlier in the month to avoid getting caught up in the end-of-month madness that usually ensues when the company's only cancellation method is by email. You're supposed to get an email informing you that the support team will be in contact within 48 hours, but in my case that never happened so I called the customer support number. Now I'd already called the customer support line not long after ordering my box but after a snafu with the representative in which he'd said that he cancelled my subscription and would be sending me a confirmation email (that I never got), I went with their steps instead of emailing my cancellation request and waiting. I got the automated follow-up but no actual confirmation, so I called and after being told that the wait time would be longer than 10 minutes, I left my name and number on the machine. There was never a callback, so I emailed again and gave them a brief rundown of the prior events and that I was trying to confirm my cancellation before the next month. I finally got my answer a couple of days later and my subscription was cancelled. It took a week total to cancel the subscription.
Purchasing products you received:
I had to search for the products individually on Google because once you log into your Urthbox account you can access your account information and see what kind of box you ordered, but you don't get any details about the items that came in your box. There is a section labeled "Products," but I couldn't find anywhere to search for the individual products to purchase them from Urthbox.
So what came in the box?
I ordered the Mini Classic box, and here is what I was given:
These are pretzel sticks covered in caramel and dark chocolate with chocolate chips and sea salt sprinkled over the top. For me, these were pretty sweet but they taste so good I'm willing to deal with it. lol I loved the size of the bag, it's more than enough for a snack or two, the bag is resealable which I also liked, and you can't even tell that this is a healthier snack because it tastes so sweet. I'm not normally a big fan of dark chocolate so I wasn't sure I'd like them, but the sea salt and caramel mix with it really well and balance out the bitterness. They're sold out on the company's website (probably from the Urthbox customers who also received these--seriously, these taste great lol) but they should be getting new stock in soon. That last part could be wishful thinking, though. lol If you live in a hot area like I do, I'd suggest refrigerating these or you'll have a melted clump of mess on your hands when you go back in for a snack.
This is the only product in the box that I can say that I truly hated, and hate is still an understatement. I've tried a juice similar to this one before and it too was the stuff of nightmares. I've been trying to find one that doesn't provoke my gag reflex but unfortunately, this wasn't it. When I smelled it, it had that sickly sweet smell one gets when they're drunk and the alcohol is leaking out of their pores, or that smell after the alcohol comes back up. As an emetophobe and a non-drinker, that smell brings back so many bad memories from my younger days at the club trying to spot the ones who couldn't hold their liquor so I could get away in time. LOL The odor was enough to send me running for the hills, but I didn't feel right not trying it so I did. Immediately, I had to fight the urge to gag. The liquid looks like baby v and has this powdered milk/fruit taste that really isn't good. The aftertaste takes awhile to die down and it's bad the entire time. I don't see how people can like these. I even had some of my family try this and much like the other product we got like this, nobody liked it. If this was the only way to get my protein and energy, I'd pass. lol These are temporarily out of stock as well.
4. Hemp Hearts Raw Shelled Hemp Seeds, $8.99 for 8oz.
I've never had any sort of edible hemp product before but I smelled a hemp shampoo once and thought I was going to die, so I wasn't eager to try these at all. At first these taste like sunflower seeds and it's not so bad, but the aftertaste is pretty dry, like if you ate a bunch of pecans and didn't drink any water afterward. lol I can't see having these as a snack because they don't do much for me, but they weren't awful.
5. Pnut Punch Cold-Pressed Bar, $11.99 for a 15-piece box
There was no description of these anywhere on the wrapper and the name of the candy doesn't give you much to go on either, but if you've ever had marzipan candies before, that's exactly what this tastes like. It has a stronger walnut taste than regular marzipans, but it's similar in texture and in taste. It wasn't anything new for me; the ice cream trucks here sell marzipans all the time and I used to eat them a lot when I was a kid, but if you've never had them then these candies should be a treat.
6. Energy Gummi Bears in Citrus, $1.50 for a single pack
One of these bags is supposed to be the equivalent of one energy drink, but to be quite honest, I'd rather just have the energy drink and get it over with. lol I ate a couple of these and I didn't really feel any changes in my energy levels, so I think if you were to have one of these packages you'd have to eat the whole thing at once to get any sort of energy boost. They do taste like citrus though so even if you're not trying to get an energy boost, they'd still make a pretty good snack.
My thoughts:
I like the concept of Urthbox, and I liked the majority of the snacks I was given. There were a couple of definite misses, but the majority of the products were hits that I'd love to purchase again. I like that there are multiple box types as well as sizes that you can choose from, and I thought it was really cool that you could buy a box for your workplace. I like that the snacks are healthier and portable so you can take them along with you on days out, and I like the variety in the types of snacks that I got.
I do think there are some points for improvement though. I think that the option for instant cancellation should be added to the website (but that is partially because I have gone through companies who use the email cancellation option and it proved to be unreliable), and the option to purchase the products that came in your box from the website rather than searching on Google should be made available as well. Customer service is where I have the most complaints; they don't always follow through on delivering the cancellation emails (check your spam mail was what I was told; I check mine daily and never received it, but your email may filter any communication attempts there) and it can be like pulling teeth to actually get through and talk to someone. Overall, however, I liked most of my snacks and if not for the problems with getting customer service to respond to you, through either email or the support line, I wouldn't mind ordering from Urthbox again.
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