During the day I’m an office bound minion. This creates a host of challenges for my diet. I love my food, I like to eat and I really like to snack! Office environments are full of temptations from the cakes that are brought in, buffet lunch leftovers and of course the meeting biscuit stash. That before a couple of tough meetings and an office run for chocolate and crisps to the local garage!

As part of my food prep and diet tracking I realised I need to add some more calories and snacks into my diet beyond just my usual apple and banana. The question was what? I needed snacks that met my training needs, could live in my office drawer and be tasty. I decided to test out snack boxes not only just try and meet these needs but I also thought the variety would encourage me to try some new things that I could get myself in the future.

Graze Box is the big player in the UK market and to be fair the only one I had heard of. Extensive goggling did come up with some US companies but for a while it appeared that Graze was the only UK option in town. However then I discovered Early Bird snack boxes and always wanting to support smaller companies my comparison began.

Online Ordering
Both sites use similar models of picking you boxes, listing you personal preferences and rating your favourites. Both enable to pause your deliveries and have easy no obligation purchasing and cancellation options. However I did find Graze’s website a little more stable across web browsers but and although Early Bird did have great customer service when I had login problems. I have to give this round to Graze.

Price / Value for Money
£3.99 gets you four Graze punnets in a box delivered to your door whilst £4.96 gets you four snack punnets delivered to your door by Early Bird. Early Bird is a much small company so I can understand the slight price difference (economy of scale etc). However the pods that arrive are suspiciously identical other than the contents and branding. So I am going to call this round a draw as I can’t give either top marks as basically neither are value for money compared to preparing my own snacks and nuts. These simply cater to my lazy factor and need for treats!

Range and Quality of Snacks
This is a tough round. Although not every snack was to my personal taste they did both deliver what they said and thanks to the preference setting there wasn’t a snack I hated. Graze as the bigger company does have way more to choose from butEarly Bird has several unique ones such as Chai seed pudding. The portions are also identical. Generally each pod is big enough but occasionally you do wish there was a little more! A close round but if you like variety then I’d say Graze pips this round.

Nutritional Value
The nutritional value does really depend on what type of boxes your pick and your own personal tastes. I prefer sweet snacks over savoury ones so although “healthier” I found I was still consuming a lot of fruit sugar. If you keep an eye on your choices then both can offer nutritious options to help with your daily diet but I would have to say overall that Early Bird overall has more virtuous options to choose from.

Overall
I enjoyed trying both boxes. Early Bird’s chai seed puddings were delicious and they had some really good low calorie nutritious offers including some great gluten free options. They had some great snacks but if I’m honest they were just a little bit too healthy for me!  I need my snacks not just to be fuel but also more of an exciting little treat if they’re going to beat the call of the office biscuit tin! Whilst Graze have become a regular order due to their nice but not too naughty selections. My personal favourites have included the protein yogurt toppers which I have saved for my weekend breakfasts (to give me a treat feeling) which admittedly doesn’t help my office challenge but it’s yummy! They also do various chocolate featuring treats such as chocolate cherry tart (dark chocolate buttons, pecans and dried cherries).

The reality is that there are better value and cheaper ways of snacking including making your own snack boxes by bulk buying nuts, fruit and other nibbly bits. Graze has even started its own shop to cater to that market enabling you to buy bulk ingredients!  However I’m quite time poor and I’m not a religious food prepper so both companies do offer a great options for office bods like myself who need something to keep in their desk draw!

If you want to try either of these snack boxes out then there are a range of discount codes out there including my own referral codes. If you want to try either box my referral codes are:

Graze – Using code 3NCRPQ9TP  and get you our first, fifth and tenth box for free

Early Bird – Using code marie-4698 to get you your first box half price

Oh and if you do come across any other companies catering for the UK market please let me know!!!