Try the World Without Leaving the House

Advertised as “the first gourmet tour around the world delivered to your door,” Try the World provides a gift box containing a quick taste of a different nation’s palate pleasers, every two months.

Founded by a Russian-born New York foodie and a French globetrotter, the company aims to offer not only premium artisanal and international food products, but also a more immersive experience including regional art and music. This is accomplished by a number of postcards included in your box that provide goodies such as poems, music playlists or lists of top local films.

We received a preview of the Paris Box (which will be sent out on November 28), and found postcards tucked inside that explained the origin of our packets of Les Confitures a l’Ancienne powdered dark chocolate (blended with Bourbon vanilla) for hot cocoa, the tiny Alain Milliat jams in Bergeron apricot or wild blueberry with a wildflower honey, and exotic Le Palais des Thes tea bags that meld French tea culture with those of Turkey and Tibet. These three companies alone represent the northwest (Maurencourt), central (Paris) and southeast (Orlienas) regions of France. Additional products you will find in your Paris Box are salted butter caramels by Le Petit Saunier, Chabert & Guillot nougat bars, Sel de Guerande fleur de sel from Brittany and chestnut cream by Clement Faugier.

Along with the international flavors you’ll sample in these high-end (but meagerly portioned) delicacies, you can accompany your cup of tea with the playlist provided (for Paris, it includes the likes of Satie, Gainsbourg and Gall) and read aloud “Exotic Perfume,” a poem by Charles Baudelaire (in English or in French) over chocolate.

Try the World is a subscription service, which charges $45 per box every two months. It’s a little pricey considering that the items included are close to sample size, but when you look at the variety and quality of the handpicked food items and the well-designed postcards, the box is a neat way to experience that country’s cultural scene from your living room couch. Compared to the price of sending flowers or a fruit basket, I would much rather receive something worldly yet personalized. Subscribing for a full year (six boxes) gives you something to look forward to, but my only complaint would be that the contents of the box don’t seem like they would sustain my global culinary whims over a two-month period.

The Tokyo box ships at the end of January, and the Rio de Janeiro box ships at the end of March. Future box themes have not been announced.

— written by Brittany Chrusciel