Unbox Love Review: A Surprisingly Fun Date in a Box

My boyfriend Ben and I have been together for more than three years, and living together for almost two of those years. I work a full-time job, he owns his own business, we have two dogs, crazy families, busy schedules, and hardly any free time to devote to each other. So “date night” is one of those things that we always talk about doing, but usually ends up getting put on the back burner because we simply don’t have the time (or money — let’s be real, fancy dinner dates and/or going to the movies can be expensive).

Unbox Love offers a solution to pretty much all of these problems — so now we have no excuse for not spending “quality time” together on a regular basis. For just $39 per month (or as low as $34/mo by subscribing for a three- or six-month subscription), you get a fully planned-out date in a box delivered straight to your door. Ben and I have never tried any subscription boxes for couples, but we decided to give Unbox Love a try — here’s what we thought.

What’s in the Box?

This month’s box is all about the beginning of Spring, and the products include:

• Microwave Popcorn Popper
• Amish County Popcorn
• Shut the Box game
• True Lemon flavor packets
• You’ve got mail cards
• How Well Do You Know Me game
• Recipe and Tips Cards
• Directions

I’ll be honest — upon initial inspection of the things in the box, I was skeptical. The popcorn maker was a little intimidating, and I had never heard of the game “Shut the Box” before. The rest of the stuff just seemed like random/cheesy things that I wouldn’t know how to use.

So, all of that to say: I am SO glad that Unbox Love comes with direction cards — these were a LIFESAVER. I sat down with Ben and we literally just pulled the cards out and did exactly what they said to do. It seems simple, but without step-by-step instructions, I doubt we would have actually tried everything in the box.

How Did the Date Go?

We started our date in a box off by trying out the popcorn maker. I’ll admit, I definitely underestimated this thing. It seemed like it was way too much work for little reward — I mean, popcorn is just popcorn, right? So why not just make it easier on yourself and pop those handy, dandy pre-made bags? WRONG. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to eat store-bought popcorn again after trying this fresh, delicious Amish County Popcorn. We followed the instructions and put ¼ cup of popcorn kernels in the popper, along with a teaspoon of oil, and a little bit of butter and salt — I am not exaggerating when I say it came out amazing. Plus, it was really cool that we made it together! (Cheesy, I know, but true.)

The next part of our date was making some drinks to go with our tasty snack. That’s where the True Lemon/Lime/Orange/Grapefruit packs came in. The directions said to look up the drink recipes on their website, but we didn’t have any of the ingredients to make those fancy cocktails. So we improvised — I had some strawberry margarita mix in the fridge that I added a True Lime packet to, and Ben sprinkled a True Orange packet into a bottle of Blue Moon. The packet says that each one is the flavor equivalent to a wedge of the given fruit, and I believe it! Even though it was the consistency of salt, it tasted like I had fresh-squeezed lime juice in my margarita.

After making our refreshments we moved our date into the living room, where we popped in a movie and relaxed for a bit while we enjoyed our popcorn and drinks. A couple of hours later we picked our date back up by playing the “How Well Do You Know Me?” game. Considering that we’ve been together for so long, I figured this game would be a breeze — but I was actually surprised by how much we ended up learning about each other. Even though some of the questions were really cheesy, we laughed a lot and enjoyed talking about some random things that we usually wouldn’t.

The final part of our Unbox Love date night was breaking out the “Shut the Box” game. Once again: expectations = exceeded. This seemingly simple game is actually incredibly addictive. It’s the perfect coffee table game because you can play by yourself or pass it around with as many people as you want. We ended up sitting at the kitchen table playing this game for much later than we intended to — and then we started playing it again the next morning over coffee and breakfast! For the past few days, pretty much any time we’re in the kitchen we play a few rounds of this game.

The last instruction for our date was to split up the “You’ve Got Mail” cards and leave each other notes throughout the week. We have a friend staying with us this week, so we will probably postpone this part of the date until we have the house to ourselves again (don’t want the wrong person to find my love notes!). But I love this idea, especially because we have such different schedules.

Is Unbox Love Worth It?

Like I said, when I first opened up this date in a box, I was not sold. I thought it seemed like an over-complicated way to have a super cheesy date, and it didn’t really seem like the kind of stuff that we would enjoy doing. I was especially worried about convincing Ben to even participate in some of the activities, to be perfectly honest.

However, I retract all of my previous judgment of Unbox Love. Not only was this box an incredibly enjoyable way to spend a Sunday afternoon, but my boyfriend was a completely willing participant the entire time — I think he might have even had more fun than I did!

I didn’t see the benefits of having a guided date with pre-planned activities before trying Unbox Love, but it’s actually a really nice change of pace from the same things we do every evening when we’re both exhausted and just want to veg out on the couch. Though I definitely don’t have anything against binge-watching Netflix over dinner, it’s arguably not the best way to connect with your partner. Going on a traditional date is always an option of course, but subscription boxes for couples like Unbox Love take it even a step further than yet another dinner and a movie by forcing you outside of your comfort zone and providing everything you need to try something new together — and you just might have some fun while you’re at it!

Do you and your partner want to try Unbox Love? Use our coupon code ESL10 for $10 off any subscription or gift!

Follow Christine on Instagram: @christinemassey