5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Avoid the Granny Smitth Apple Coffee Cake ... Unless you Like to eat Mold, December 8, 2009
This review is from: My Grandma's of New England Coffee Cake Custom Sampler (Misc.)
Do not waste your money on the Granny Smith Apple Coffee-Cake version, unless you like to eat mold! Just so you know, you won't easily be able to detect the mold except by taste. It shows up adjacent to the apples, and in the cinnamon strip in the center of the cake.
The one star that I had to give Granny Smith Apple Coffee-Cake in my review was merited, however. I did not get sick from eating some of a piece of the coffee cake ... the phenolic flavor of which caused me to pull apart the cake, and identify that gray fuzziness which hallmarks mold. No diarrhea. No puking. Well worth one star.
My story. The week after Thanksgiving (2009), I received one of the Granny Smith Apple Coffee-Cakes as a gift from my aunt. According to the label, she had purchased it the first week of November 2009 at Walter Reed Hospital (military) commissary. After detecting the mold, I resealed it in its packaging material, what the company describes as a reusable freezer bag. I placed it in my freezer, including the outer box, anticipating sending it back to the company for examination.
A note about the packaging. When I first opened the coffee cake's box, the inner (reusable freezer) bag conformed tightly with the cake, and the tape sealing the bag was undisturbed. While the flyer included with the coffee cake advises that the product is stable for up to a year, I believe this could be overly optimistic if the mold eats cake quickly. On the bright side, as the mold progresses, it's likely to become more visible during the course of a year.
Know that if you don't heed my warning you're on your own. The company will not stand by their product. When I called their 'customer service' number, the woman advised me to return it to the military commissary where my aunt purchased it. Not being in the military, I can not get on the facility within which the commissary is located. Further, I'm not the boorish type, so the idea of returning the gift to my aunt as inedible was not an option.
As we spoke, the customer service woman asked me 'if I had a problem with Campbell's soup would I call Campbell's soup, or take the soup back to the grocery store?' I'd get in touch with Campbell's about defective soup ... if for no other reason than to allow them to recall the product. Bottom line, she could no nothing for me as I had not bought the coffee cake directly from My Grandma's.
When I related to the customer service woman that I would endeavor to communicate my dissatisfaction with the Granny Smith Apple Coffee-Cake, and their customer service, to the extent that I was able, she put me on hold. Twice she came back on the line, asking me to continue to hold ... advising that held calls could only stay on hold for a short while. The call disconnected after this. There was no discussion on either of our parts with respect to the desired resolution. My only option for the moldy Granny Smith Apple Coffee-Cake was to return it.
With natural foodstuffs, especially those not chock-full of preservatives, it seems likely that problems might crop up every now and again. I would've been content to ship the coffee-cake back to them (at their cost) to let their experts determine what was wrong, how it likely happened, and whether or not a recall was indicated ... after which I would've hoped for a replacement coffee cake.
The crappy customer service ensured this didn't transpire.
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