A few months ago I was asked by a company called RawSpiceBar if I would like to receive a free month of Spice Packets in return for me to review their product on the blog. As you know I’ve been laid up with a broken Achilles tendon and closing down our business, so I hadn’t had a chance to test these out and write something up until now.
Be advised – this is a product review. I did receive a free month’s worth of spice packets, their “Octoberfest selection” (but that’s about an $8 value). I have not received any other compensation for reviewing this product.
Initial observations:
- Pretty packaging
- Sweet concept
- Each shipment comes with three spice packets and corresponding glossy paper recipe cards
- No written allergy disclaimer on packaging (big issue with me with my food allergies)
- No country of origin listed for ingredients (kind of a problem for me too since I do try to keep it local)
- Website is not easy to navigate
Post testing observations:
- Tried two of the three packets (Horseradish & Mustard Cabbage, Caraway Cheese Soft Pretzels)
- First off recipe cards really need to be proof read & tested prior to printing, verbiage is not consistent between ingredient list vs the recipe instructions
Examples:
1) Pretzel Recipe says “yield 12” on front, but in actual instructions you’re told roll out 8
2) Pretzel instructions tell you in step one to add the spice packet to the dry ingredients, move forward to step four and you’re told to use remaining spice packet to sprinkle on top of rolled pretzels… remaining? What remaining? I just followed your instructions and put it all in the dry ingredients!
3) Cabbage instructions tell you to heat oil until “shimmery” and cook Spices in a pan with oil until they begin to “pop” – while waiting to hear the pop my sister and I had a debate as to whether they meant Edward Cullen or Ziggy Stardust. Sadly to say, the spices never “popped”, I added more time and they burned. Never worry, I had decided to make a half batch – I had another pile of spices to test out… they also started to burn with no pop.
4) Recipes are described as fitting for all culinary skill levels, example three above is NOT for a novice cook – even skilled chef’s like my husband have been known to burn spices.
5) Please note, in looking over their website today I found that they had edited this recipe, so if you go online you’ll see the cabbage recipe with no cooking of spices in oil, but if you’re going by the instructions you’re sent sadly you’ll be disappointed.
- Final observation of the cabbage dish – this does NOT taste German.
- My family was entirely underwhelmed by the cabbage recipe – the only things we could taste were cabbage and onion (the ingredients I added). There was no hint of any of the listed brown mustard seed, yellow mustard seed, or horseradish.
- Moving on to the pretzel recipe my family was once again underwhelmed – there was no caraway favor, nothing spectacular, nothing special about the spices I was sent.
- The pretzel recipe was also poorly executed as it was obviously not tested prior to printing.
- Being the good researcher that I am I also decided to weigh the spice packets. The packets are listed at .3 ounces/packet. The entire package, spices & packet weighed in at .25 – remove the packet at it came in at .125 ounce!
Final impressions:
- I am NOT impressed
- Recommend my readers do NOT buy this product. They’re expensive and tasteless.
- If you want to experiment with spices, please do so – if you’re feeling unsure of where to start, drop me a line. I’d be happy to share my real culinary experience and love of global cuisine with you!
- Also, I did find this website last night with many other reviews – please go take a look. After reading these I’m concerned enough about what I read to not share with you this company’s website address, or to post any of the pretty pictures I took last night.
