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Hamptons Lane
Cost: $47/month
Ships To: United States.
Hamptons Lane, who kindly sent me this box to review, curates an amazing monthly box of artisan foods, kitchen tools, and serveware for the food lover. Boxes are $45/month and will be revealed at the beginning of every month. Boxes are created around a monthly theme, such as Southwestern Fiesta, The Best of BBQ, Coastal Italy, etc. Unlike most subscription boxes, you can skip the box if it doesn’t interest you during the first five days of that month.
Hamptons Lane generally ships later in the month, but since this was a review box it came early and shipped via FedEx Smart Post.
As you can see the packaging on this month’s box was quite intense. I safely removed the box from the packing peanuts and thought I was in the clear. And then disaster struck. I knocked the box over and spilled the peanuts ALL over the floor. OMG it was a mess. I will for sure be more careful the next time I get a package like this because I don’t want to deal with that again anytime soon.
I knew the theme of the box, but I couldn’t remember everything that would be inside. I am telling you, even when I “spoil” myself or know what’s coming in advance, I still find the actual opening of the box to be exciting because I never remember all the details.
I still couldn’t tell too much from the first look. I appreciated that everything was wrapped in a layer of bubble wrap though and felt like there was no way any of this stuff was going to break!
The July 2014 Hamptons Lane theme was “Summer Cocktail Party” and included the following items to help enhance your drinks and appetizers:
~Whodini Sisters Bloody Mary Potion Seasoning ($16.49): When I saw this I thought, okay, we’ll have some Bloody Mary’s one morning or something. And then I read a bit more on it and realized that you could use as seasoning on ground beef, on grilled corn or in crab cakes. Hamptons Lane included a recipe using it in cheeseburger sliders. I never would have thought of that on my own, but they sound good to me.
~American Juice Company Chuck Blueberry & Ginger Gershwin Cocktail Juices ($5): These juice combinations were created to eliminate the hassle of squeezing fresh ingredients for your drinks. They sound amazing alone, but in a cocktail I bet they’d be incredible!
~Bee Raw Orange Blossom Honey ($15): I can honestly say that I have never considering making a lemonade out of honey. But you can. Or so I hear. The recipe Hamptons Lane included for this calls for water, honey and 1.5 cups of fresh squeezed lemon juice. I must try making this at once.
~Glass Dharma Glass Straws ($14): Glass straws huh? When I opened this I thought it was the dumbest idea ever. No seriously, I imagined my kids biting and chewing on them (they like to do that with straws) and pictured little shards of glass in their mouth. However, these are suppose to be the sturdiest straws ever. I am going to use them as a test for a while and see how it goes before I let them give it a go. They look gorgeous and do make whatever you are drinking seem much much fancier.
~Hamptons Lane Wooden Cocktail Muddler & Stainless Steel Julep Strainer (~$10): I estimated the prices on these because they were created by Hamptons Lane. I think we have a strainer, but I do not believe we have a muddler, so this will work out nicely!
All totaled I came up with a value of $60.49 for the July 2014 Hamptons Lane box. It wasn’t my favorite box ever from them, but it did introduce me to a lot of new things and made me think out of the box a bit. I never would have thought about using a drink mix as a meat seasoning item without this box!
What do you think of Hamptons Lane? If you are interested in subscribing or want to learn more, click here. You’ll get $10 off your first box (it’ll appear as a credit in your account and will be deducted when you are billed) using my link, which makes it an even better deal. I believe there is still time to opt in for the Summer Cocktail Party box so you won’t even have to wait until next month for your first delivery!
Glass straws are awesome! I felt the same way you did, but I picked up a pair (with bent tips like a plastic straw!) recently from a cute store in Seattle for only $4 each. They claimed to be made out of the same glass Pyrex uses and they’re dishwasher safe. I was skeptical but I use them at least once a week, putting them in the dishwasher, and even dropped them once or twice and they are so sturdy and awesome! And, of course, eco-friendly. I wish I had bought about half a dozen! I’ve noticed they’ve been cropping up on Etsy a lot lately too, in colored and striped versions too.
Oh, I was just wondering if there were fun versions of them! I need to start looking on Groupon more.
I have a set of four glass straws from Strawesome (it’s a mom-owned company in Michigan I think?) that I got with a deal when there used to be this cool site called Jasmere that focused on small/artisan businesses. Like Groupon for Etsy (except that existed and shut down too, it was called Heartsy.me). Anyway–I have had my set for probably 4+ years now and not a single straw has been broken. I haven’t let my four-year-old use them, but I love using them to drink iced coffee out of a Tervis tumbler or ice-cold soda out of a can… they really do taste better!
I need to check out Strawsome. Do they have any cute designs??
Yes! http://www.strawesome.com/glass-straw-sets/
I chew on straws, too (and I’m a 36-year-old woman…). I used to think it would be a good idea to get reusable straws so I’d be sending less trash to the landfill, but you’ve just made me realize why I should probably stick with plastic.
You could always do paper straws?? Don’t they biodegrade more quickly?
Maybe I will throw a box of paper straws on my next Amazon order and see how I like them. It’s worth a try!
Hey Sneaky Burrito, my name is Shanshan Mei, the social media editor at Hamptons Lane. I want to let you know that actually we’ll be featuring a specially customized box of paper straws in our upcoming August Ice Cream Sundae box. 🙂 They’re colorful and completely bio-degradable. The only little downside is that if you put the straws in a sundae for over three hours, they might get a little bit soggy. 🙂 If you’re interested, check us back in August at http://www.hamptonslane.com. Hope this helps! 🙂