American Jerk Spice Rub - Mildly Spicy & Sweet with Earthy Espresso - For Red Meats, Fish and More

I'm a foodie. I love to cook, and I love to try out new and different foods, whether from restaurants or from various stores. This is my 1st time trying this brand out, and trying out their spices. The reason I purchased this item is due to the fact that the chicken seasoning I normally use is no longer widely available in Meijer stores. It's sold online, but availability is spotty, and it's double the price online, and though I love the taste, I just don't see myself paying double for what would normally be about 50% of the price in stores. So, I've been trying a lot of competitor brands that have a similar flavor. I found a few, but decided I wanted to try some new spices. Spices have become some of my favorite parts about cooking. I have gastritis, so it's hard to find spices that I can actually have. Also, as a flexitarian, and health nut, it is not in my interest to purchase spices with hydrogenated ingredients, MSG, or the like. This was one of the few products that passed all those required filters.FlavorIt's not exactly the other chicken seasoning flavor that I love that I couldn't find at Meijer (that I mentioned above), which is heavily centered around the flavors and ingredients of honey, mustard, and garlic, but I'm okay with that because I wanted something similar but different. It's not as mild as that type of seasoning, has a bit of that paprika kick, and seasoning salt like flair to it, which I like because I love paprika. The flavor is exactly a hint of the 7 ingredients listed, with the paprika, cayenne, and then sugar being the more prevalent flavors that stick out in the spice.The flavor with this combination is definitely akin to the creation of the Powerpuff girls, sugar, spice, and everything nice, just without the chemical x. A great balance of a combination of all things great without having to use artificial compounds to achieve such a flavor. This type of flavor is definitely perfect for BBQing. Perfect for the summer, but for those of us that love to eat, it's perfect for any time of the year. This is a great Sauteing, grilling, or air-frying creations. I've used with with my air fryer for homemade air fried chicken strips, as well as with this Balsamic Honey Chicken Pressure Cooker recipe, that's basically a way to home make the 5-star Asian restaurant creations that we know and love.IngredientsIn this day and age, where more and more people are turning to healthier lifestyles whether paleo, kosher, vegan, flexitarian, keto, etc., and more and more people are more knowledgeable about their health, nutrition, and actually care to live a healthier lifestyle, ingredients are important, NATURAL ingredients are very important, wanted and needed. Every ingredient in this spice are simple raw ingredients, it's not some unnatural, inorganic, compound or chemical; this is not a science experiment, this is cooking. You can pronounce each one of these ingredients, and you can look up each ingredient, and find simple results that you don't need a college degree to understand. Also, there's not a long list of ingredients that looks as long as a person's bucket list, it's a small simple set of ingredients, Brown granulated sugar (interesting and cool, considering most brand's just use simple sugar - white sugar), salt, garlic, onion, paprika, cayenne, and Szechuan. For those foodies and chefs out there, everyone knows, onion, salt, garlic, paprika, cayenne, are 5 essentials to great flavoring. Might as well be the official universal emblem for great cooking. You can add sugar in there, if you're not too scared or concerned about a little bit of sugar.As I stated in the flavor section, I love paprika, but due to gastritis, I can't have it. However with this spice, I can have that flavor with no problems. In case you don't know what gastritis is, it's basically a severe form of acid reflux, for me, it affects all of my intestines (including the duodenum), as well as my esophagus. The ingredients get a super stamp of approval from me. This was a rigorous consideration when trying to find the perfect spice, I went through at least 50-100 spices for a good 2-3 hours before deciding upon this spice from this brand.DesignSome people may not comment on this, but one thing that will not only attract me to buy a food item, but also have a very high influence on me purchasing the product, is the packaging design. I majored in advertising and public relations in college, and I naturally have an affinity, love and passion for the arts, so design is always my language. The typography to the side screams A+ graphic design/illustration project. I love how unconventional the brand is, using different fonts and font types. Orange was such a great choice for the background and heart of this design, it's not as alarming as red, it's not as mellow as yellow, it's a nice fun medium, that captures your attention, and makes you want to play, which is how you should always feel about food and cooking. Love the complementary colors for the fonts everyone knows black goes with everything is one of the best compliments to orange, white also goes with everything, and yellow is the sister to orange. Once again, unconventional, but with the brand's style, not too over the top, a just right medium that comes across as "we mean business" (professional), but yet fun (personable and intimate). The bomb in the center with the white sunray like sparks really is a fun touch that just sets it off, and matches the flavor, and the expectation of the flavor, especially from this brand (for any of the loyal buyers).For those of you that love music, and getting into your artist's music, this is very reminiscent of artist's lyric videos for their singles. The design is literally like reading an epic tale or anime, with a really engaging narrator.Lastly, but certainly not least, another part of design isn't just visual, but it's functional. This I speak of, is the design choices for the container itself. There are 2 sides of the container for usage of the spice, the shaker side, and the pouring side. The way you use them is so cool, instead of the conventional way of opening them from the front, you actually open them from the side. There's a fingertip indentation on both sides to indicate this, which is where you can rest your finger to tip the side up to use. The shaker side has reasonable size holes to use to make sure you get a good amount of spice on whatever creation you're making. This is also cool because sometimes brand's make the hole so small that as time goes on, the spices build up and get stuck in the holes, and you have to pick through the holes or shake profusely to get the spices out to actually use. As for the pouring side, it's very spacious, but reasonably. I think the choice for this was very thoughtful. A lot of times I struggle with being able to get a measuring spoon through that side on spices from other brands; it either results on the measuring spoon being stuck in pour opening of the spice, having the spice spill out on the counter from being clipped when trying to pull it out to apply to my food, or struggling with it so much to get out, that most of the spice falls back into the container. So, I definitely love this, I can fit all my measuring spoons in this side, as well as a conventional spoon.Serving SizeI didn't expect much in this area. I saw the oz, but I'm used to getting a small quantity from brands online at this point. Looking at the picture, I thought I would receive a sampler size like amount, but was pleasantly surprised when I received this big rectangular container of the spice. I've only used it for the past 2 weeks, but this thing is VERY plentiful. It's twice the size and quantity of the spices I've bought from other brands for the same price. It promises 288 servings for the container at 1/4 teaspoon, and I believe it. Definitely worth the price.ConclusionI love this spice. It taste great, natural without any additives like hydrolyzed concoctions, MSG, or anything of the like, it's not stingy with the the portion contained in the container, easy to use the spice whether shaking or pouring, and the design of the container is definitely a keeper that you'd want to keep in your collection, just because it's a fun, visually engaging look.

I use this every time I BBQ. Not too sweet or spicy, perfect balance.

Perfect to add to vegetables

It goes good on everything like meat, potatoes, eggs and most any thing that needs a little zip. Spicy but not over powering. Will buy again.

This spice rub is very flavorful, but quite a bit more salty than I expected it to be. I’m still playing around with it to find it’s best use.

Spicy, excellent flavor! Use it on chicken, fish, even great on tofu and potatoes.

This is DELICIOUS! Perfect for grilling chimkins

Nothing special about this rub.