Caribbean Foodie: Irie Mon Box

I am taking you to the Caribbean today. I promise that your hair won’t get frizzy nor will you get sunburn, because it’s a tasty virtual jaunt to Jamaica.

Irie Mon Box is a gourmet food subscription service brand that provides curated foods, namely from the Caribbean.

As a foodie, I absolutely love trying new culinary products, especially if it’s from a culture or region’s cuisine that I did not grow up eating. I’ve been to several great Caribbean restaurants on holidays, and have always liked jerk seasoning, but have never made my own dish using it. This subscription delivers a great mix of foodie items to help you get a taste of the island in the comfort of your own home.

Cost: $40.00 /month

What To Expect:

The box is quite big and comes in roughly at 34 cm x 33+ cm. I was impressed by the quality overall, in addition to the packaging of their items. Jamaican born Irie Mon Box creators, Nicki and Stephan seem to have found a great niche market — not only is the box filled with edible goodies, but they’ve even thought about the culture and the people specific to theme of the box.

Goodies In The box:

I’ve had not the best luck with a few beauty and fashion subscription boxes in the past. However, with foodie boxes I’ve been very fortunate. The Irie Mon Box is probably one of the most underrated foodie boxes I’ve tried out there, in my opinion. It’s a good deal, given the fact that you actually get full-size products within the box. There’s nothing like a small food sample that’s only enough to go on one biscuit. Caribbean lifestyle magazine, Maco, and music CD comes with the monthly subscription. You’ll also find other deluxe samples that are packed with plenty of goods to share with your household with each item.

Above: vegetarian chicken with Jonkanoo pepper sauce, and coriander.

This Box Included:

Chippie’s Banana Chips, which were delicious. These have a much lighter weight than others I’ve tried. They taste really good, and considering I like plantains and not usually bananas at all, this says a lot. Green bananas are used in making these, so the result is very light and tasty crisps sans the overpowering banana flavour.

Eaton’s Guava Jam: This was also really good with a nice sweet and fruity flavour — perfect to spread on morning toast, or an afternoon scone, which is what we did on the weekend. I only needed a little, but I imagine the normal dosage for a fellow guava lover would be very generous.

Walkerswood Jonkanoo Pepper Sauce: We love spice in our foods, but dare I say, all you need of this sauce is a little bit. I loved the (almost mesquite) flavour of this pepper sauce so much that I made vegetarian chili and used this in it to spice it up. Definitely a #win.

Coconut Passionfruit Candle from Arawak Islands: I loved this sensual touch to the box, if I could take this candle with me in my carry-on I would. It’s quite fragrant, in a good way and sweetens the ambiance (you know, since the heat is already turned up with the other flavourings).

Maco Magazine: a Caribbean lifestyle magazine that includes home interiors, artwork, culinary cuisine, and even botanical inspiration.

Music sampler: another great element for this themed box. The CD includes diverse genres of the Caribbean compliments of Putumayo.

Tortuga Rum Cake-Coconut: I’ve never had this cake before, but I love coconut. I could only eat a small piece not a proper piece of this cake, since it’s a bit too sweet for me. But, it gets an approval from the mister.

Walkerswood Jerk Seasoning (Mild): I’m glad that this was mild because often with this wet version of the seasoning, I wanted to add my own heat to it just in case we have others over who aren’t into too much spice. I actually made baked fish and roasted potatoes with this seasoning as well, and it was great!

Strawberry Hill Coffee: Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee is one of our favourites, amongst others. This was a nice sample for a full pot of coffee or for our home about 8 generous cups.

If you like a bit of spice in some of your food, then you will love this subscription. Don’t worry, there’s also other savoury and sweet items to get you cooking in the kitchen in each box, and give you a generous sampling of Caribbean flavours.

What do you think about the Irie Mon Box? Have you tried a Caribbean food before?