Customer Reviews

Prepara Herb Savor

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I love fresh herbs but over the winter buy them (at high prices) at the grocery store and then HATE it when they go bad in days. With the Herb Savor, I've kept basil for more than two weeks and I've put basil and mint together with no cross flavoring. Fresh mint lasts a month.

The Herb Savor is easy to clean and use. In fact, I'm buying one for my mom for Mother's Day. I may get one for my sister while I'm at it. I had heard about this product but it actualy exceeded my expectations. It paid for itself with the first four batches of herbs that didn't go bad before I could use them.

I hate having good herbs go brown and gross waiting for another dish I can use them in. Being able to water them, like any other plant, and keep them cool at the same time, is pretty useful. This definitely increases the life of the herbs. I do find there to be a lot of parts--the two halves go together, the little clip goes in, and then the whole thing goes into the stand. And the plug comes out for putting water in. It is a little tougher to assemble and disassemble than I thought it would be, but nonetheless it's very handy.

This review is going to broken into parts, as a fair evaluation requires considerable time considering the "3 weeks fresh" claim. For this initial review we tested just under two weeks with Cilantro, a flat leaf parsley. One half of a large bunch was washed and put in a bag with damp paper towel, the other half put in the PHS according to directions, and refrigerated. At two weeks, both had instances of leaves turning brown, but on only a portion of the herb with a majority still usable. No clear advantage to the PHS though. Next we bought basil, and this gets interesting, as the PHS says to NOT refrigerate the basil, yet the fresh basil itself had instructions to do so. Half the basil washed and put in fridge with damp towel, half in PHS on counter away from stove. This test was discontinued after three days, as the basil in the PHS was decayed. I am now wondering if instructions from Prepara have changed, since others mention that basil was excluded from their instructions. I am going to have to give it a 2 1/2 total, since basil is one of the more expensive herbs, and this doesn't help there.

I have looked at the Prepara herb saver, and finally bought one three weeks ago. On the outside of the box, it plainly says it can be used to store basil, but to store it in a cool place, NOT in the frig. I have a horrible time with basil turning brown in a couple of days in the frig, so I bought the Prepara. I trimmed the stems a little, dodn't wash the basil, thinking that may make it turn sooner. Put the container in a cool place away from the stove, and almost three weeks later, the basil is still beautiful. I replaced the water once, and trimmed the stems at the same time, and have been using it ever since. IT WORKS GREAT.

When I received the Prepara Herb Savor I decided to run a proper comparative test to determine whether it was really doing a better job than the alternatives, so I bought a fresh bunch of parsley and split it into three parts. One went into a vase sitting on my kitchen counter; I put the second in a grocery store vegetable plastic bag loosely folded, and stored it in the fridge; and the last one ended up in the Prepara.
Just a couple of days into the experiment, the vase on the kitchen counter was a clear loser: despite replacing the water daily, most of the sprigs were getting yellow and wilted. However, two weeks later I can't really tell the difference between my plastic baggie parsley and the Prepara sample. They both look fairly similar.

The Prepara is very convenient; its built-in colander lets you easily rinse off delicate herbs before you store them. Replacing the water is also very easy, and its flat shape fits well in the door of most fridges.

I was also surprised that the printed manual warns against using the Herb Savor to store basil; unfortunately they do not say why.

Bottom line, the Prepara Herb Savor is a cute kitchen gadget that lets you conveniently store herbs. It takes very little space and looks good. In my limited testing it did not perform significantly better than a very ordinary plastic bag; however, it certainly looked a lot better.

I wasn't expecting to be impressed by this little gadget, thinking it'd end up in the back of a cupboard somewhere. But we bought fresh herbs for spaghetti sauce last month and of the leftovers, one type got put in the Herb Savor, another left in the package in the refrigerator.

The ones left in the original package were thrown out - all dried up - nearly 2 weeks ago. The ones in the Herb Savor still look great. Guess it's handier than I expected.

Many reviewers have expressed frustration at the results when trying to preserve basil in their Herb Savor. It turns out Basil is incredibly popular (for good reason) and is the most difficult to preserve of all fresh herbs. It's just a very fragile plant. Whether stems are cut from a plant or an entire plant (with roots) is removed from soil, it begins to die very quickly. There are many factors involved in how long a given bunch of basil will survive: starting with the freshness/quality of the basil when bought at the store, humidity and temperature of your storage spot, exposure to sunlight, tap water quality, exposure to mold spores, physical bruising of the leaves, it goes on and on. In our extensive testing, we also got mixed results but here are our findings. The Herb Savor may not be a magical solution to this finicky herb, but with some care it works remarkably better than a wet paper towel or just leaving it in a dry container in the fridge.

1. Don't beat up your Basil.
Transport it carefully from store shelf to home - it's fragile!

2. Don't pre-wash the basil before putting it in your Herb Savor.
Washing can bruise the fragile leaves, breaking and killing cells and allowing decay. Also, leaving the leaves wet can encourage mold growth.

3. Trim the ends of stems.
Just like flowers in a vase, so that the stems can draw water up to keep the leaves alive.

4. Don't pack it too tight.
Avoid bruising the leaves when placing them in. Also, leaving a little room around the leaves prevents mold growth.

5. Add water through the plug-hole as usual.

6. Place the Basil-filled herb savor in a cool spot that gets a little direct sunlight every day - not in the fridge.
We're not Botanists, but our theory is that mold will start to grow on a basil leaf as that area begins to die - this turns the leaves black. A few days later the black spots will show fuzzy grey/white mold hairs, this is the mold "blooming" - by the time you see white hairs, the mold has already been growing for some time. By allowing your Basil to receive a bit of direct sunlight, the natural UV rays will kill most of the mold, and prevent the leaves from turning black, and keep any black spots from spreading. Of course, if you put it in full sun for an entire hot summer day, you will have cooked your basil to death - an hour or two of direct sun (or a few hours of indirect sunlight) is about perfect.

We hope this helps, and please let us know if you find any other good tricks to best use our products!
Wishing you a great day,
Prepara Customer Service

I purchased the Prepara Herb Savor for my mother for her birthday in December, and now I'm returning to buy one for myself.

As someone who really appreciates fresh herbs in her cooking, my mother found that she could keep cilantro (which typically gets slimy in a matter of days in the fridge) for about 3 weeks! I hate shelling out a premium for fresh herbs I don't grow in my garden, such as mint and dill, only to have them spoil after I've used them for the recipe for which I've purchased them. Now, I'll be able to get my money's worth out of the herbs I buy and have fresh herbs for weeks! I can't wait to use the Herb Savor in my own kitchen!

The Prepara Herb Savor does indeed work. I've had small amounts of parsley, chives, and thyme stored in the Herb Savor for over two weeks now, and they're all going strong. No real signs of wilting at all, which is great. Definitely better than storing them in a plastic bag and having them shrivel up in a few days. (I can't wait to try it for storing asparagus!) The unit also seems to be very durable, made out of high quality plastic and stainless steel. I also like the fact that the base is weighted and has a non-slip rubber bottom, allowing you to store it inside the door of your refrigerator without having to worry about it tumbling over. The only reason I'm giving the Herb Savor a 4-star rating instead of 5 is the mystery concering basil. That's right, basil. One reviewer here says that they've successfully stored basil in the Herb Savor. But, as another reviewer mentioned, the instruction sheet that comes with the Herb Savor says "Great for all herbs except basil." And on the back of the box, it cleary states that it "locks in flavors of the finest herbs and more, including: rosemary, thyme, parsley, BASIL, oregano, cilantro, dill, asparagus, chives, etc." So, Prepara...Which is it? Can the product be used for storing basil or not? And if not, why? And if so, why does the instruction sheet say it can't? And why are you giving the consumer contradicting information? AAAAARGH! I'm very confused.

Let's cut to the chase. I like gadgets. They make life a little easier, and sometimes even a little more interesting. They're also nice to impress your friends with. All of that aside, the Prepara Herb Savor, isn't all that impressive. You could get the same results by putting your herbs in a small glass of water and cover them with a Ziploc. It's much larger than you would think, and much heavier.

Again, it's a good little gadget, but it seems to fall short. $20 might be a more reasonable price, but you still wouldn't be all that impressed.

2.5 stars....