Ararat Unboxing

 

What’s in the box?

In early January I decided to use a bit of that extra stimulus money to finally order the Ararat Box. The Ararat Box is a box of mostly food items, all made in Armenia. Things you can’t find in the US unless you live in Glendale, California. Getting this in the mail was like Christmas a month late. But you can order these any time of the year. If you have enough money you can even subscribe to it and get one a month. I had to do a one-time deal this time, but whenever I have the extra money I will gladly order another. I haven’t had food like this since 2015 when I was in Armenia. It sent me right back there. I will go ahead and talk about everything it came with. It will be my first unboxing blog. It’s going to be a shame to even throw out some of the wrappers for these foods, to be honest, but at least if I get a picture of them they’re immortalized. That is part of the reason I’m doing this.

 

Let’s take a moment to admire this shipping label. I just get a special thrill out of seeing the Armenian alphabet on official documents, for some reason. HayPost has increased its rates lately, but this Ararat Box was still worth it. I thought it was still fairly affordable for all that you get in it. This was the 2 KG box, that’s about 4.4 pounds for us ‘Murcans.

First thing you see when you open it, Ararat Box Magazine. It’s a guide to all the products inside. Got a couple other fun little articles in there too, and includes recipes, and interviews with some of the vendors. This was a nice surprise, and it’s even worth keeping around after you’ve finished the food in the box off. 

Beneath that, some stickers! How fun. Seems to be Valentines Day themed. I need to decide where to put them. It has to be someplace special. Especially the Papik-Tatik statues. That is adorable.

And here’s the main attraction. Jackpot!

We got pumpkin seeds,

these Russian crisps,

apple chips (I love seeing English words spelled out in Armenian letters. “Cheeps”, lol.),

“Get Nuts”. I tried some of these. They’re sweetened and roasted. I can’t wait to put them in some yogurt.

And this is also going in my yogurt!

More Russian writing. They look to be fruit treats, one apricot and one grape. These will be delicious, I’m sure.

A cute Valentines treat. 

Armenian, Russian and Georgian writing on the back. I love seeing that. Georgia has a pretty alphabet too, got to give it to them. Anyway;

Chocolate-covered dried peach with walnuts. This is going to be amazing. They just don’t make this type of stuff in America. I don’t know why. You start to take it for granted when you’re in Armenia though.

This is something  called an ant farm cake. Interesting name, I know. I actually had never heard of it. The magazine had a recipe for this if I like it. 

Some gummies from Grand Candy, Armenia’s biggest candy manufacturer. My son will love these. 

Some pins made it into the box too. These are pretty. I will have to think of somewhere to put these. 

Baguettes. These tasted a bit like a Chinese fortune cookie, interestingly. Sweeter than I expected.

I love that font they used on the Armenian letters. This is basically fruit leather, or a fruit roll-up of sorts. You can’t get quality stuff like this in the US. 

A watermelon lollipop. How cute.

Some thyme and strawberry tea leaves.This will be nice. 

And speaking of tea, here’s some more. I’m going to have a wild thyme with these! Sorry for the pun, I guess I just have too much thyme on my hands.

A nice chocolate bar from Grand Candy again. I am unsure if it’s dark chocolate or milk chocolate, but I will find out. Either way, looking forward to it. 

Some dried fruit. Pretty font on the packaging. I wonder if this will still be good in autumn when I make ghapama again. Well, hopefully I’ll have ordered another Ararat Box before then. 

Lastly, some Armenian style coffee. I brewed myself a cup as soon as it came in. I don’t have the proper Armenian coffee maker though, called a jazzve. I had to just use my own filter. But it still came out good. It’s definitely not like the American coffee you get at the grocery store. It was ground into a very fine powder, and it just had a certain taste to it. Somehow, it felt more dignified than the grab-and-go coffees you get in this country. 

So that’s what was in the box. You can order a 1 KG box as well for a bit cheaper, but I decided to just shell out and get the big one, this time. From what I understand they keep the box varied too, you get different products in each one every month. I am highly satisfied with it. In Florida I have no other way of getting these foods.