Spicefreak

Hello again everyone, I hope you’re having a great thursday.

You may have noticed that my review this week came from a monthly subscription box called Lick My Dip.

Their mission is to make proper, artisanal chilli sauces more obtainable to the masses. Something they achieve in part by collecting them all in one place to reduce shipping fees and in part by simply taking the work out of finding them all.

And they do, indeed, find an absolute tonne of exciting products. Some hot, some mild and some insane. Some well made with fairly standard ingredients and some that are a little more out there.

They recently underwent a change of management, with the original owner of the project handing over the reigns to the good folks at Wimborne Chilli Shop. My past dealing with those guys went well and I found them very accommodating but I was a still a little sceptical. They’re a shop with their own product line, raising questions about their impartiality.

Indeed, the first box they sent out did not look to be one of Lick My Dip’s best but it turns out that that wasn’t the new folk’s doing. Collecting the products for it was the last act of the original business owner and I think we can forgive him one slightly sub-par release under the circumstances. Setting up everything for the transition would have taken a lot of time away from running the business.

So it was infact last month’s halloween themed box that was the people from Wimborne Chilli Shop’s first and boy did it look to be a goody! Alongside that amazing jam I featured, they also gave subscribers an aged scotch bonnet sauce with peach and ginger from the Wiltshire Chilli Farm (complete with a limited edition mummified label), some chilli and pumpkin popcorn from Jamie’s Popped Corn Company, some black pepper extract from the Holy Llama, a ghost pepper sauce I’ve not come across before and a coconut and chilli spice mix from The Cheeky Food Co.

It was an excellent collection of products with a wide range of heats and uses. Exactly what I’d come to expect of the service. If they keep this up they should have a bright future ahead of them.

But, I didn’t get that box. I don’t get any of their boxes. I’ve seen them all and I know enough of the products to know their quality but I’ve never actually been a Lick My Dip customer.

Why? Because it’s too good. Especially for reviewers looking to get to know the companies that are out there and showcase an interesting variety of hot stuff. It’s such a convenient tool, in fact, that multiple others are already reviewing the products therein every single month.

And that’s the problem. It’s not that I don’t think they do a good job or don’t appreciate the service, it’s that I don’t want to be showing the same stuff as everyone else.

I got into spice reviewing to bring you unusual and exciting finds which, while Lick My Dip certainly does aswell, is not something I can rightly say I’m doing if I’m tasting the same stuff as everyone else. Nor would I be entirely happy taking the lazy approach and letting them do all the work.

But, for someone who isn’t in my profession, that shouldn’t be an issue. If you want a great selection of hassle free snacks, sauces and cooking ingredients delivered to your door every month, what does it matter if a few other people get the same thing?

Their service is top notch and they cater to all tolerance levels besides extract but still put flavour first in everything they do. Not everything will be as pretty as the product I reviewed from them but they will almost all have just as great a taste.

Past products they’ve included range from a few at a low medium or mild to some that use world record peppers, with a good deal of hot but not crazy ones in the middle. You also get everything from sauces to seeds, powders to jams, jerky, chocolate, relishes, chutneys and no end of other savoury and sweet stuffs.

They know their chilli and they know how to get it to you but, should you ever miss out on anything, many of their items will also be available on their web store.

In the end, I really respect the Lick My Dip service and simply cannot recommend it enough.