I received my first black box (http://www.blackbox.kiwi/) a few weeks ago, coincidently the day after my daughter was born (a few weeks early) which has made reviewing the products a lot harder than I’d hoped but here we go!

I received the “Spring Black Box” #LargeBlackBox #BlackBoxNZ which contained a number of goodies including:

• Shapes – Cheese & Bacon
• Berocca Forward – Tropical Orange
• Heineken Light
• Nature Fresh Sliders
• Tasti Made Simple Wholefood bars – Lamington
• King of Shaves Sensitive Shave Gel
• Energizer Eco Advanced AA batteries
• Nivea In-shower Rich Body Lotion

So on to the reviews of the various products!!!

Shapes – Cheese & Bacon

As always tasty (they’re shapes!) had a very strong bacon flavour but not so much of a cheese flavour. The bacon wasn’t like biting into a rasher of bacon but wasn’t overly artificial tasting either.  They also now have flavour on both sides of the shape instead of just one side so even more flavour!

So overall rate them quite well and would look to purchase these from the supermarket.

Berocca Forward – Tropical Orange

This is a brand new energy drink on the market based on the Can “New BEROCCA Forward gives you the energy boost you expect from an energy drink Plus Berocca’s vitamins & minerals.” Contains Guarana and Vitamin B1,2,5,6 and C Magnsium and Zinc. Sugar is from “Natural cane sugar”.

Taste wise – it just like a Berocca tablet that you normally mix with water. It’s one of the better tasting energy drinks I’ve tried. It’s far more “water” like than the syrupy consistency you normally get with other energy drinks which is a plus! Each 250ml can only has 12.5g of sugar, which is far less than other competing dinks helping contribute to the “no syrup taste”.

I think this may be my new go to energy drink when required.

Heineken Light

Now as a said being a new father and getting very limited sleep I didn’t think it was smart to mix that with alcohol, even if it is a light beer. No worries however. I asked a trusted beer drinker to provide a review on my behalf.

“Ok so was good, but slightly different to a normal Heineken, a little weaker. Flavour was slightly less bitter and could tell that it was a light beer, but overall still nice!”

So not the best thing since sliced bread, but still seems like a suitable option for when you want a beer but not full strength.
Maybe Heineken could work on making it taste more like the full strength beer so it’s not obvious you’re drinking a light beer taste wise.

Tasti Made Simple Wholefood bars – Lamington

Another new to the market product. These bars have only FOUR ingredients which are all natural. No preservatives, numbers or other nasties you can find in other bars.

I was surprised how good these were. I really didn’t think it would taste like the kiwi classic lamington you get from the bakery! I was pleasantly surprised and wrong!

These are great “Tasti” little bars (30g per bar). They have a great chocolate flavour from the cocoa and remind me of eating a lamington (sans sponge).

It’s a little disappointing there are only 5 bars in a box (most muesli bar type products come in boxes of 6 which is much easier to divide between the masses). They are also a little pricey at nearly $1 per bar. But I guess compared to “bliss ball” type products which is probably a better comparison product compared to a normal muesli bar they are probably better priced in this match up.

King of Shaves Sensitive Shave Gel

Now I’m a beard kinda person, but need to sort the neck out of course, so decided this week to wet shave instead of the normal electric shave to maintain the neck area.

I had no shave rash after shaving using this which was great (though a few days later the regrowth is causing some issues). The Shave Gel is super low foaming, there is basically no foam created which is different from other king of shave products I’ve used previously. The result was great straight after the shave. But the lack of foam was a little strange.

I’d consider this product in the future, but will probably stick to electric shaving as it’s much faster and easier.

Nivea In-shower Rich Body Lotion

Outsourced this one to the other half, her reivew is below:

Really nice smell. Love how fast it is to use – with a newborn in the house I don’t have time to spend after the shower moisturising , the in shower lotion was so quick and easy. Love you don’t need to let it soak in or rub it forever – just on, rub in and wash off.

Reviews to come:

Energizer Eco Advanced AA batteries

I’ve not tried these yet, but also a little unsure on how to properly review batteries. They either work or they don’t.

Anyone got some great ideas on how to test these?

Nature Fresh Sliders

Review still to come. Trying to decide best way to use these little morsels, probably with home made beef patties and bacon!!!

 So overall really enjoyed receiving a Black Box and hopefully look forward to receiving more in the future to try and share my views on the products the box includes.