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Hatchery Tasting Box Review – Artisan Cooking Ingredients Box

Liz Cadman
ByLiz CadmanMar 10, 2014 | 11 comments

Hatchery Box Review - Gourmet Subscription Box Reveal

The Hatchery Tasting Box is a brand new subscription that sends you gourmet condiments, sauces, spreads, etc. each month. They kindly sent me this box to review!

Hatchery Box Review - Gourmet Subscription Box Items

The Subscription Box: Hatchery Tasting Box

The Cost: $20 a month

The Products: Each box includes a hand selected combination of ingredients, such as: condiments, spreads, cooking sauces, jams, honeys, syrups, oils, vinegars, salts, spices, seasonings and specialty baking ingredients.

Make sure to check out the Food Subscription Box Directory for similar boxes!

Hatchery Box Review - Gourmet Subscription Box Card

Each box comes with a fold out card detailing the items included, and profiles the makers behind the items. I like the maker profile part of this card a lot!

Hatchery Box Review - Gourmet Subscription Box Recipe

The back of the card includes a recipe for Lemon Rosemary Lamb with Mint Salsa Verde that features the seasoning included in this box.

Hatchery Box Review - Gourmet Subscription Box Seasoning

Meso Nutso Berry Extract - 29.5 ml Value $4

The Jam Stand Chai Heart Pumpkin Jam - 1.5 oz Value $2

Fogg City Spice Co. Sicilian Seasoning - .5 oz (the label included is of the full size jar) Value $3

(Some of the labels on the items ripped off because they used sticky bubble tape to wrap each item individually. It kept everything in one piece, but made some of the labels hard to read!)

One other thing I really like about the card they include with the box, is that each item has a recipe suggestion. They recommend trying the berry extract with Prosecco and citrus fruit - I think that sounds like an amazing drink!

Hatchery Box Review - Gourmet Subscription Box Mustard

Mange Pear Vinegar - 1 oz Value $1.50

Mustard And Co. Mustard Sauce - 1 oz Value $1.50

Maui Maid Teriyaki Sauce - 4 oz Value $3

I love that this mustard is made with all organic ingredients and it smells amazing!

Hatchery Box Review - Gourmet Subscription Box Spoon

And the box came with some cute wooden tasting spoons!

Verdict: Since this is their first box, I thought I'd give feedback on what I loved and what I think Hatchery can improve upon:

What I love:

Info Card - This is one of the best cards I've seen in any box. I love their cooking suggestions and learning more about the Artisan makers behind the products.

Curation - All of the products included in the box seem to be of very high-quality and also items I wouldn't come across at my grocery store. (I also like that you can buy full-size versions of anything you try on their site).

What they can improve upon:

Sealed Containers - Out of the 5 jar/bottle samples, only the berry extract was sealed with a plastic wrapper. I'm sure all the food is fine to eat (everything I sampled so far has been great), but since some of the products instruct you to refrigerate after opening, I'd like some way to know that an item hasn't been opened yet for my own pantry storage purposes.

Value - This box has a food sample value of about $15. I think it would be great if they could get the value closer to the $20 price point, but from reading their site it looks like subscribers get extra discounts and exclusives, so maybe that's something I just didn't get to see. It's also worth noting that you can't buy these products in these sample sizes, so there is an extra value in being able to sample the items before buying the full size versions.

Overall I think you can tell that a lot of thought and work went into this box, and if you're looking for a new way to try out artisan ingredients for your meals, I recommend this box.

What do you think of the Hatchery Tasting Box?

Liz Cadman
Liz Cadman
Liz is the founder of My Subscription Addiction. She's been hooked on subscription boxes since 2011 thanks to Birchbox, and she now subscribes to over 100 boxes. Her favorites include POPSUGAR Must Have, FabFitFun, and any box that features natural beauty products!

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11 comments

L. Harris

Hello, My daughter subscribed to these boxes for me- not sure how many. Was delighted with first box, and packaging was fine (neat little brown wrappers on all products to secure each item), and all bottle/jar goods were sealed. The second box, I just received (June, 2014), and this is Virginia, so it’s a little hot out, plus transit time. There was a little jar of white truffle mayo, which sounds wonderful, and a rich cream caramel sauce, which ALSO sounds great, BUT neither were sealed, and even though I immediately refrigerated them, I’m a little skeptical, sooo, I don’t know if I dare try them- can’t decide. Can a person get in touch with the company by phone to ask ? Just thought I’d share…thanks for doing a posting on this ! : )

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Sarah

This looks so good! I have been thinking of subscribing but I want to read more reviews first

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Kristi

I was interested in subscribing until I saw that the value of the box didn’t match the cost of the box. I could probably pick up similar items in the World Market sample food sample section for that price.

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Latte

just signed up for hatchery! excited to get my first box! add the code VDAY14 for $10 off!

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Jennifer R.

I would love to see a few more reviews of this box. It feels like it has a lot of promise but I just don’t feel like I’m ready to dive in yet!

Thanks for your review! I love reading your blog!

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Jen

I got this box as well. I was really excited about it. The sticky bubble wrap did kind of ruin it for me. I posted a comment about it on their Instagram, and they deleted it! I shouldn’t get hung up on such a little thing, but that kind of ruined it for me. I bought the three month subscription, so I’ll see how the next to go before I decide to keep it or not.

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Mimi

I was disappointed the sticky bubble wrap,too.
However it seems like no more bubble wrap!!

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=461860680604103&set=a.369307153192790.1073741828.328827733907399&type=1&theater

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Liz Cadman

Eek – I hope they take the bubble wrap feedback and get rid of the sticky stuff. (Weird that they deleted the comment).

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Inna Borovik

This was my second box and I had the same problem with the tape and labels, so I mentioned it on my Instagram post. They said they’re changing how they package the items, so it should be different this month! 🙂

Sherry

This looks like the kind of box I’d like to see in my kitchen!! I agree on the value though – I need it to be at least the value of the cost of the box to make it worth it. I’d like to see another review (with a higher valued box) before I’d look into subscribing.

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