RawSpiceBar is one box my husband is legitimately as excited for as I am each month. It’s great when we can tear into a package together. This month was a very special theme – Baltimore! Seeing as we live in Baltimore, we danced around like idiots for a while.
For $6/month, RSB sends you 3-4 expertly blended spice packs. Each blend is unique and enticing, you definitely haven’t tried these blends before. The packs are sized in a way that you have more than enough to use a few times, but not so much that they’ll be cluttering up your spice cabinet for years. As a bonus, they always include a pretty booklet with recipe ideas for each of the spice.
Baltimore is really only known for one major spice – Old Bay. People here put it on everything. You won’t find a crab feast that doesn’t have pounds of it sprinkled on Maryland crab, but it doesn’t stop there. Restaurants use it in soups, bars sprinkle it into bloody Marys. Grocery store shelves are lined with Old Bay seasoned potato chips and pretzels. No matter where you are in Baltimore, you are never more than 5 feet from something seasoned with Old Bay.
I’m going to tell you a secret that earns me some seriously judgy looks when I tell people – I don’t like Old Bay. It’s not good. It’s aggressively salty and has an offensive amount of celery salt in it.
When we opened the spice packs, Brian held his breath while I skimmed through the enclosed spice mixes, waiting for me to curse them for sending me Old Bay. Of course they didn’t, because they are awesome and way more creative than tossing some celery salt and paprika in a pouch.
What they did send was their take on Old Bay, which I can understand. It’s not that I don’t care for the IDEA of Old Bay, it’s that it’s blended really poorly and imbalanced. There is way too much salt for it to be used on All Of The Things. RSB’s Baltimore Bay Spice mix is Old Bay done right – notice how celery salt is the only salt they use. See how there are other spices besides paprika and pepper? That’s because they actually wanted it to taste good. If I wasn’t already in love with RSB, I would be now. It’s everything Old Bay should be.
I don’t know if Baltimore is especially known for its pickles, or if the pickling madness that is happening city-wide here is less of a national obsession than I thought, but I freaking love pickles. Pickled garlic, pickled onions, even pickled melon – pickling is not just an awesome way of preserving my CSA leftovers, but it’s delicious and lends itself to a crap ton of creativity in the kitchen. A sprinkle of chopped pickles can add a perfect punch of brightness into a dish, especially homemade pickles that haven’t been brining for way too long at a grocery store. This pack has given me so many ideas – with our CSA about halfway over for the year, we’re starting to hit a slump in terms of coming up with new and interesting things to do with our leftover veggies.
This is really cool – I am a firm believer that you are what you eat, and this pack is super intriguing to me. I love that RSB regularly includes a sweet spice pack, and this one might be my favorite. It has never occurred to me to use spices in my smoothies, but I have no idea why because it sounds delicious. Adding heat and depth is a great way to improve anything, even desserts.
Final Rating: A+
RawSpiceBar seems to outdo itself each month. Between the genuinely interesting flavors, the quality of the spices, the low price, and the helpful recipe guides, I have yet to find something I dislike about this subscription. Brian is totally on board with it as well – like I said, he anticipates it each month as much as I do. It’s nice to finally have a subscription that equally appeals to both of us!
Click here to check out RawSpiceBar for yourself!
xo,
Jill
This box was sent to us in an exchange for an honest review
All opinions are my own