TRIED & TESTED // The Goodness Project, Vegan Box

This month, for Veganuary, I’ve been trying out the Goodness Project Vegan Box, a snack box jam packed with delicious vegan treats. Full of products sourced internationally, the box contains a variety of sweet and savoury snacks, as well as cruelty free cosmetics. If you are looking for some delicious animal-friendly snacking this Veganuary, either for yourself or as a gift, or if you just want to discover some new, tasty treats, delivered straight to your door, this could be the perfect product for you.

Subscription types

There are a range of box sizes and subscriptions available to choose from. Each month the team at the Goodness Project puts together a new selection to send to you. The smallest ‘letterbox-friendly’ option offers 4-5 snacks and is priced at £8.50. The ‘mini’ box is £9.95 and includes 5-6 full-size products. The ‘maxi’ box (which I tried) contains 8-10 items and occasionally features a body care product (my box included a scrummy Crazy Rumors choco strawberry lip balm) and costs £17.95. The boxes themselves are attractive and nicely packaged, making them feel like a real treat. There is an option to add a personalised picture card if you are considering sending them as a gift. There is also an ‘office snacks’ subscription available. Great if you want to get your whole team snacking in a healthier and more planet-positive way.

Goodness Project Vegan Box snacks

The savoury snacks in my box comprised of some raw pizza crackers from My Raw Joy, made with organic flax, courgette, carrots, tomatoes and a variety of herbs – these were really delicious and I devoured half of the box with a good few dollops of hummus as a pre-dinner treat while I cooked – and some Banana Joe BBQ banana crisps. I wasn’t sure of what to expect from a savoury banana crisp but these were much like vegetable crisps and similar to parsnip or plantain crisps in their sweetness.

Chocolate treats included a Rhythm 108 hazelnut praline bar, which is one of my favourite vegan chocolate bars and the only product in the box that I’d sampled before, a decadently delicious box of seven Bean and Pod dark chocolate caramel moments, and choco quinoa pops from Choc Chick – raw chocolate covered popped quinoa and rice.

Good post-workout snacks included Boost Balls’ tasty lemon drizzle cake protein balls (3 balls per pack), made with dates, brown rice protein, cashews, coconut, maple syrup and citrus oil, a delicious gluten free, mixed seed and soya protein oat bar from Nairn’s, which was super tasty without being too sweet, and an acai and strawberry bar from Buddah’s Awakening, which I was less convinced by as it was quite dense and a bit too rich in flavour for me.

Finally, the box contained some Yum Earth sour beans, which were sour fruit-flavoured jellybeans. My box was also definitely more sweet than savoury, although this may vary month to month.

Sneaky treats!

The snacks in the box are definitely more sneaky treats than healthy morsels, but great for a little indulgence. As I noted above, I had only tasted one of the items from the box before, so this proved a good way to discover new products: in particular it was a good way to try out things I wouldn’t naturally gravitate towards or that aren’t readily available in UK stores.

With selection boxes such as this, inevitably there will be some products that you really enjoy and will actively seek out to buy again (hello My Raw Joy pizza crackers and Rhythm 108 praline chocolate bar!) and those that you are less keen on – I’m not a big fan of sweets so I just tasted a couple of the sour beans for the purposes of the review and left the rest, ditto the banana crisps. The Goodness Project website does have an online shop, so if you find a particular treat that you like in one of your boxes you can easily get hold of it again.

Organic, fair trade, eco-friendly, vegan, chemical free, planet positive

I love that all products selected by the Goodness Project must fall into at least one of the following categories: organic, fair trade, eco-friendly (i.e. causing minimal or no disturbance at all to the natural world), gluten free, vegan, chemical free (i.e. that the product contains only natural ingredients, is completely non-toxic), cruelty free and planet positive (that businesses and products have a positive impact on the community and a strong social responsibility towards people and the planet). Being vegan is one things but also important to me are choosing products from companies mindful of their responsibility to people and the planet.

Final thoughts

Priced at £17.95 for 10 items, on the whole the Goodness Project Vegan Box seemed like good value for money, particularly when you factor in the cost of shipping. However, I’d definitely consider this as more of a short-term ‘treat’ purchase to discover new vegan products, or as a gift for a friend, than as an economical way to buy my snacks, not least as I feel guilty for wasting the items I’m less keen on.

More Information

Who is it for: These boxes are certainly not just for vegans! If you are looking for delicious, ethical snacks delivered straight to your door, or a perfect gift for the planet-conscious person who seems to have everything, these could be the boxes for you! There are also gluten free options available as well as office subscriptions and corporate gifts.

How much: A letterbox-friendly box of 4-5 snacks costs £8.50; a mini box of 5-6 snacks costs £9.95; a maxi box of 8-10 items costs £17.95

Website: thegoodnessproject.co.uk

Lizzy is an editor and health and fitness writer. She grew up as a competitive swimmer and waterpolo player, trained as a lifeguard and swimming teacher, and is happiest when slightly chloriney! After moving to London she became a (mid-pack) runner and ran her first marathon in 2015. As a new mum she is currently working to see how compatible motherhood and marathon training really are! She is a vegan and is raising a plant-based baby girl.

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