I was recently contacted by a company called Bonjour French Food and asked if I would like to review their French Food subscription box. Bonjour French food are a Paris based company and their boxes are designed for French Ex-pats who may be missing certain products, or for British French food fans. The box consists of 5-7 surprise gourmet french products and is available from £29 a month, with the option to cancel at any time.
I received an email advising me that my box was going to arrive by courier around 7pm the next day which was handy as I usually work during the day. I waited in but the box did not arrive that evening, but instead arrived the next morning, luckily I was working from home that day so I was able to sign for it.
The box was very well packaged and beautifully presented with some products wrapped in blue tissue paper. It contained 6 products along with a little magazine which tells you a bit about each one. In the email from Bonjour French Food they included a link to a blog article which tells you a little bit about the theme of the box and for October that theme is "Apéro". This focuses on things to enjoy with bread and the 4 savoury products were ideal.
The pepper coated saucisson smelt delicious and had a good kick to it. There were 2 different terrines included; Wild Boar with Hazelnut and tangerine, and a duck based one. There was also a Tomato and sweet pepper chutney which also contained anchovy; this was strong and garlicy and although cheddar is not French, it did go nicely!
And on to the sweet products which I was most looking forward to trying! The Petits Sablés ronde et bond by Michel et Augustin are very delicious shortbreads. I loved that they came in little packs of 3 and they were very addictive.
The real star of the Bonjour French Food box however was the Marlette Fondant au Chocolat baking mix. It is really easy to make just by adding butter and eggs and baking. The result is really quite awesome!
Mr Review Addict and I simply could not wait to get stuck into the Fondant au Chocolat and we ate it pretty much straight from the oven. It was rich, chocolatey and honestly one of the best desserts that I have ever tasted! The ingredients were clearly of a high quality and having found that it is available to purchase in Fortnum and Mason and M&S in London, next time I am up that way I am going to be stocking up on serious amounts of this stuff!
Verdict
I love the idea of a French subscription box and I also thought that the theme was a great idea. I enjoyed the blog articles and the magazine which accompanied the box, even though standard of English used could be improved. That said it was a lot better than the standard of my French and part of me found it charming rather a major issue. The mix of products was great but I definitely preferred the sweets but that will come as no surprise to my regular readers. I would love to have the option of a sweet only box and I am sure that there are people who would love a savoury only option.
Overall I am awarding Bonjour French Food 4 stars. I hope that they manage to prevent any future courier issues but that aside, I thought the products and the presentation was fantastic and it was a great taste of France.