Customer Reviews

Homemade Dressing Mix Variety Pack (French Garden, Napa Garden & Italian Garden), 3.3 to 4-Ounce Containers

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When I first received my order of the Italian Dressing mix, I was a little wary. A lot of prepared herb and spice mixes on the market seem to be full chemicals that I can't pronounce and they taste very dull, extremely salty and have a strange, artificial after-taste. NOT THIS ONE!

When my order arrived the first thing that I did was to taste the mixture straight out of the jar. I was surprised at how clean and fresh the taste was. I picked up on the herbs (I'm thinking oregano, basil, parsley, rosemary and maybe some mint), the sea salt and then the sweetness of the bell pepper combined with a tartness of the lemon juice. There was a slight bit of heat (the garlic?) and a nice, pure, food-like aftertaste.

Next I mixed it with some fine olive oil and used it as a dip for some crusty Italian bread. Wonderful! Later in the week I used it, along with some Dijon Mustard, as a coating for a rack of lamb. I ended up adding a little crushed black pepper to the mix and it was great.

Finally I used it as a salad dressing along with aged balsamic vinegar, wine vinegar and extra virgin olive oil. It took a few minutes to get the proportions right, and I did add a little chopped rosemary and some fresh minced garlic. It was much better than any prepared dressing that comes in a bottle.

I was really impressed with the flavor and quality of this prepared mix, so much so that I ordered this variety pack. Here are my thoughts on the other two varieties that come with this set:

* French Garden
At first taste it seemed salter than the Italian version. The chives not only tasted fresh but still retained their classic oval shape (meaning that they were not over-processed or ground to death). The garlic and onions were strong, but not too. I also picked up on the parsley and I thought I tasted a little tarragon. I added this mix to a French style omelet (runny). Very nice! My fear of it being too salty was put to rest. I next sprinkled it on some grilled eggplant and I was blown away! It woke up the subtle flavors of the vegetable. I will be trying this is other dishes to be sure.

* Napa Garden
This mix had a different texture than the others, probably due to the tomato powder which added a wonderful richness to the blend. This one was not as salty as the other two. The pepper gave it a little heat but I usually like more (which is easy to add, hard to take out). I tried this (along with some olive oil) with spinach angel-hair pasta. That turn out to be a good choice. The mix did not overwhelm the flavor of the pasta but added that extra kick.

I highly recommend this variety pack. All three will become staples in my spice cabinet.

I have been on a diet for a while now, only eating oil and vinegar on my salads. I ordered this product thinking it would at least improve the taste a little. Well, now everyone in my family is hooked on this stuff. Even my picky husband loves it. My daughter loves to mix with olive oil and dip bread in it. All of the flavors are absolutely wonderful. You've got to give them a try.

I have been looking for a long time for a decent salad dressing. The store-bought dressings haven't done the trick (unhealthy oils, mysteriously long-named ingredients, odd to no taste, etc), the mixes we've tried haven't been much better, and I have yet to find a really terrific homemade dressing that is similar to what I can get in my favorite Italian restaurant. So, I was a bit leery when I saw these. But the price was right and so with a "sure can't hurt" attitude, we bought the Italian mix.

Oh my! It is very tasty with just the right blend of spices and "zing" (not a hot and spicy zing, just an "awaken the tastebuds" zing). We all loved it and so were inspired to try the other varieties. There is no disappointment here! All 3 are simply delicious and have me wishing that, like a cow, I had more stomachs so I could eat more of the stuff ;o) I find myself craving salads at all sorts of times and it makes a yummy marinade also.

Seeing how our family recently found we need to go gluten-free, I contacted the company to ask about their GF status. The reply was that though the bottles are not yet labeled as such (they soon will be) they are most certainly gluten-free. So, one more thing we restricted diet people can have to enjoy. YAY!!

It's great to be able to make up our dressings with the healthy oils we enjoy and to be able to understand every ingredient on the label. Our family appreciates that. Along with it being economical, I'd say you can't go wrong. Try them out. And if you don't like them, well, you can give them to me ;o)

Bon Appetit!

I have the Italian Garden and have been using this on everything from: chicken salad, steaks, chicken & potatoes and even fish!! It is sooo awesome and works on everything....hardly any salt.....just some great flavor!! It is so "clean" and flavorful! I recommend this to EVERYone who wants to add flavor without alot of sodium and added "junk".

I had read about this on a web site for HCG because it's so hard to find ingredients for a salad dressing w/o sugars added. My husband usually uses packaged dry mix and really liked it instead of his regular mix so I can use it with or w/o oil and it tastes great!

Delicious!

These are zesty and full of flavor. They make a tasty dressing (see package for recipe) or just sprinkle on your salad and toss with oil and vinegar. I'm enjoying my salads so much more with this. Also delightful as a dry rub on meats. Very favorable. So glad I found out about them!

This is a sugar and gluten free product.

I bought this dressing mix variery pack to use to add flavor to my salads while I was on a strict diet to lose weight. I like the flavors and the versatility of the mixes, as well as the fact that it has little to no calories. The containers are larger than the usual spice mixes and lasts a long time. I like these dressing mixes a lot and will buy it again!

I bought these mixes based on other reviews and I have to say it was a wise choice. I am using these dressing as spices for cooking vegetables. Last night I fried asparagus with the napa spice and the dish came out very tasty. I will probably buy them again.

I really wanted to like these dressings/marinades/rubs, but had to give upon them before I wasted a couple hundred in other ingredients trying to salvage the experiment. Maybe they're good as rubs or marinades? I made the various dressing mixes listed on the side of the bottles, but I didn't have the heart to put them on meat.

I had two big problems:
1) All of the dressing recipes are super, super, super vinegary. Even if you cut back on the vinegar, you're still left with super, super vinegary. If you're from South Carolina, this might be your thing. I'm not, it isn't.
2) They all smell and taste similar! You know how every variety of Sam Adams tastes like, well... Sam Adams? These mixes have the same issue. If I had to guess, I'd say that "herb blend" that's the first ingredient on each bottle is the same blend - something proprietary that the makers spin off in different directions to make the different dressings.

They are relatively healthy, without any scary fillers or sugar or whatnot, but Annie's, Wegman's and Brianna's make whole lines of relatively healthy dressings that actually taste good. I'll be going back to those, or making my own herb mixes.