RawSpiceBar Subscription Box Review + Coupon – June 2016

This company ripped me off for food photography after sending out a free sample of 3 spices. I never made any agreement to provide content to them, which is all laid out plainly in the emails. Food bloggers work w/ brands via paid blog posts/social media posts and/or affiliate programs, and those are the only things I brought up to Raw Spice Bar in correspondence. No agreement was ever made as at that point I hadn’t even seen their product. When I tried one of the spices in my own recipe, shared to my Instagram/Twitter accounts, Raw Spice Bar took those photos, cropped out my watermarks, and reposted to their own page as if I had given it to them to use. I would never provide my work for free without an existing arrangement for fair compensation (in full disclosure, this is no less than $150 for a one-time post.) Instead of paying bloggers as most other brands do for social media campaigns, they download anything tagged to their name on IG/FB/Twitter and repost on their own sites as advertisements, without permission of the content owners. I’m now attempting to collect my fees. Raw Spice Bar has blocked me on both Twitter and IG, as well as any of my followers who have amplified my tweets in support. Intellectual property laws are on my side here. It was their responsibility as a business to know these things – but what is more shameful is the way Rebecca, the owner, ignored my initial messages to resolve this issue amicably.

Just a word of caution that you’re dealing with a company who operates unethically.

Buyer beware. No July box received, minimal and delayed contact from business after asking for help. Asked when box was shipped they told me nearly 2 weeks ago. I asked for refund as I did not receive box. They said they’d refund my money. That hasn’t happened either. I stopped service-would not purchase from them.

I agree with this whole review. But I would also love to add that the watermelon salad was really good! I definitely made it differently than the recipe, but I personally really loved it!

It looks like they left out oil from the potato salad recipe. 1/4 cup of vinegar seems like a lot. It should have been 1/4 cup olive oil and 2-3 tablespoons of vinegar. A well emulsified dressing probably would have prevented the potato starch from combining with all the liquid which created that gelatinous goo everywhere.

I have used the smoked salt that I received last year in dessert recipes! I hate potato salad (I have an aversion to mayo) but the salt has been perfect on chocolate pots de creme and sprinkled on this year’s pecan pie. I really recommend using it that way if you are not into the potato salad.

I have a spice store nearby but was interested in gifting this to a friend. I’ve been watching the reviews (by an experienced cook!) and there is always some kind of problem she runs into–every month. You don’t mind if they are a new company but the kinks should be worked out by now and the monthly shipments well managed. With the complaints and cancellations I read about in the reviews/comments I don’t think I will bother unless some big improvements are implemented.

I got this box a while back and loved it despite their constant typos and errors. I rarely follow recipes anyway. The thing that kept nagging at me though was, if they were that careless in their company branded collateral, how fastidious could they really be about sanitation and food safety?

Super bummer because this is right up my alley and the price point would make it create to gift to other food-centric people but I just can’t, I worked in the culinary world long enough to know that if you don’t have your S*** together in the front of the house, there’s no way you have it together in the back.

This subscription isn’t for me as I can’t handle spicy hot items. I did go to their website because I was hoping that they sold the spices they include in the subscription boxes. My Dad really likes hickory smoke salt and we can no longer find at the grocery stores. I couldn’t find that they sell spices.
Bummer, I was hoping to surprise my Dad.

I got my mom a subscription a year ago and we’ve been loving the recipes. It’s always fun to try new things! Unfortunately, I think we threw out this month’s spices by accident. At least it doesn’t look like we missed a great month.

We left the BBQ sauce off of the ribs and just cooked them with the spice rub – they were totally delicious! I know that saucy ribs are traditional for Kansas City, but what’s the point of a spice rub from a subscription if you can’t taste the spices? I also added a couple of tablespoons of mayo to the potato salad, and used a different kind of potatoes, and didn’t have the same problems you did. I’m guessing the broth was what gave the salad it’s gelatinous quality, and that the kind of potatoes I used absorbed it a bit more? Not sure, though.

The watermelon salad was a little weird. I had to make it in advance, and the goat cheese basically melted into the water from the watermelon. The flavors were interesting – I would never put watermelon and goat cheese together, but it was okay! I couldn’t taste the sesame much, though.

I want to love RSB so much, and almost every month they do bewildering things. I wish they would hire somebody with incredible organizational skills to help them get their s*** together. Ah, well!

I always make potato salad with mustard and vinegar (no broth), similar to this, and they never come out with that texture. I think it’s simply too much liquid?

I received this package even though I canceled a few months ago (they did not charge me). I do not even know what I will do with it. Especially now that I am seeing the potato salad. (Probably I would just make a regular potato salad recipe but dump the spice mix in?) I am pretty sure RSB just uses photos (and recipes) from the internet without permission and doesn’t try them first to see if they will work.

I am from Independence, MO, but I usually just tell people “the Kansas City area.” I swear my father-in-law still thinks I am from Kansas.

Just sent this as a gift to my aunt. I’ll have to tell her to watch for recipe flaws. Thankfully, she’s an experienced cook and can adapt.

That potato salad recipe is weird – maybe they left out an ingredient?