Recently at the Vancouver Writers Festival, we enjoyed the two boxes that came with the events the Literary Cabaret and the Afternoon Tea. These boxes were curated and put together by Granville Island Delivery Co. We read somewhere that the festival did not profit from these boxes, but wanted to promote this service because vendors were hard hit by the pandemic. We are fans of the delivery service because Granville Island is a wonderful place to get all sorts of food, products and spirits from artisan vendors. This service is fantastic for presents and we’re thinking of purchasing some items for the holiday season.

Out of the two, my favourite box was the box that went with the Literary Cabaret. It came with two cheeses from Benton Brothers, olives, sundried tomatoes, fig jam, salted caramel chocolates, garlic cashews, a loaf of bread and a small bottle of merlot. My favourite combination was the salted caramel chocolate with the merlot, beautiful combination. The fig jam was also a great combination to the soft brie, and the sundried tomatoes also paired with the hard cheese.

The Afternoon Tea box – I have to admit it was a bit underwhelming. Don’t get me wrong – I loved every single item of the box, my favourite being the cookies, and the delicious jam that went with the raspberry scone. But I’m thinking of anyone who got this and were hoping for a high tea set. This was not what this was – it was more of a sampler box in my opinion, which isn’t a bad thing, just depends on what your expectation was of this box.

Despite the thought on the last box, I still think Granville Island Delivery Co is a great service and will be using it for Christmas, especially for some Oyama Sausage orders. I went to Emily Carr University while it was on Granville Island, so it adds another layer of comfort food nostalgia for me.