Tastesmiths is a UK-based company with a bold mission – to make cooking global cuisine at home easy while also reducing food waste. They achieve this by providing pre-portioned meal kits containing just the right amount of ingredients and spices needed to cook specific dishes from around the world.
But how good are these Tastesmiths kits? This comprehensive Tastesmiths review will analyze their product quality, ease of use, range, pricing, and more. Read on to find out if their offering stands up to their lofty goals.
Contents
An Overview of Tastesmiths and Their Product Offerings
Tastesmiths aims to encourage more people to cook authentic global dishes from home by taking the complexity out of recreating these cuisines. Their range focuses on full meal kits as well as marinades, sides, and gifts.
It’s worth hilighting in this Tastesmiths review the curry kits which allow you to cook popular curries spanning Indian, Thai, Persian, and African flavors. Each kit contains Tastesmiths’ blend of spices along with fresh ingredients like garlic, chilies, and curry leaves.
The marinades offer flavor bases for meats, fish, and vegetables in global styles like Jamaican jerk and piri piri. Sides like pilau rice and bhajis complement the mains. They also offer gift boxes and vouchers for sharing the experience.
So in a nutshell, if you love cooking and want to easily whip up restaurant-quality ethnic food at home, Tastesmiths presents an appealing option. Below, this Tastesmiths review will analyze how well they deliver.
Detailed Review of Tastesmiths Meal Kits
This section thoroughly reviews multiple aspects of Tastesmiths’ product and service. It analyzes the quality of their ingredients and recipes, ease of use for their target home cooks, their range of cuisine options, pricing, and more.
Product Quality
First and perhaps most importantly, any meal kit is only as good as the ingredients and recipes it provides. This Tastesmiths review finds that Tastesmiths delivers extremely well when it comes to quality:
Ingredients
- Tastesmiths kits emphasize using fresh, high-quality ingredients in their recipes. This includes produce like tomatoes and onions as well as herbs, chilies, lemons, and other supporting ingredients.
- They grind their own signature spice blends optimized for flavor authenticity in global recipes. Tastesmiths reviews praise the depth of flavor these spices provide.
- Ingredients are pre-portioned so home chefs get just the right amount for recipes without waste. This gives meals a balanced taste.
“I loved that I didn’t have to buy large packets of spices to use once. Tastesmiths kits portion everything for the perfect dish”, says Lucy in her Tastesmiths review.
Flavor Authenticity
- Many Tastesmiths reviews by customers praise the meals for tasting truly authentic. They achieve global flavors that you would expect from quality restaurants.
- Kits for cuisines like Indian, Persian, Moroccan, and Thai curries have drawn particular attention for depth of spice and balanced heat.
- Tastesmiths cleverly allows customizing heat levels so cooks can adapt dishes to their personal tolerance.
Packaging and Delivery
- Ingredients come packed in high-quality, durable containers sealed for freshness.
- Standard shipping across UK arrives within 3 working days while expedited options get meals faster. Shipping fees are reasonable compared to competitors.
- Packaging allows safely storing kits in freezers for months so customers can order in bulk if desired.
So in summary, Tastesmiths scores very high when it comes to ingredient quality, authentic global flavors, and packaging that retains freshness. Their commitment to sourcing quality produce and developing signature spice blends pays off handsomely.
Ease of Use
In addition to providing quality ingredients, Tastesmiths positively distinguishes themselves in simplifying the cooking process. Their kits require minimal prep work, and basic cooking equipment, and include fool-proof directions tailored for home kitchens:
Instructions
- Recipes provide clear, easy-to-follow directions optimized for their kits. Steps explain combining ingredients, cooking methods, sequence, and timing.
- Instructions have a simple style that avoids overly complex techniques. Dishes focus on unlocking flavor rather than advanced preparations.
- Recipe cards include labeled diagrams of food components so cooks understand how a dish comes together.
Customization
- Most kits allow cooks to tweak aspects like heat level, choice of proteins, cooking methods, etc. This appeals to a range of cooking abilities and tastes.
- Vegetarian/vegan/halal/gluten-free options for many recipes provide options for restrictive diets. Kits make it easy to adapt ingredients.
Storage and Reheating
- Packaging supports refrigerating or freezing kits to prepare them later, saving busy home chefs time.
- Recipes include suggestions for repurposing leftovers or components into fresh dishes, reducing waste.
So for the average home cook without advanced skills or time, Tastesmiths kits earn high marks for user-friendliness. Cooking global cuisine has rarely been this stress-free!
Product Range and Cuisine Options
No matter your experience level or favorite flavors, Tastesmiths offers an expansive product range spanning cooking methods and global cuisine themes:
Types of Kits
- Curry kits for Indian, Thai, Persian, and African styles offer the widest selection including favorites like Tikka Masala, Rogan Josh, Korma, and Tagines.
- Marinades provide flavor bases for meat, fish, and veggies suited for grilling, baking, etc. Choices like piri piri, jerk chicken, and tandoori cater to varying tastes.
- Sides like pilau rice complement mains in popular cuisines. Tastesmiths’ masalas and signature recipes deliver authenticity.
- In addition to regular kits, Tastesmiths provides gift boxes with a selection of their popular meal kits – perfect for the foodies in your life!
Global Flavors
- Indian, Thai, Persian, Moroccan, Sri Lankan, West African – you name the cuisine, and Tastesmiths has a box that captures its authentic essence for kitchen novices and foodies alike.
- Kits simplify complex dishes from these regions down to key ingredients, spices, and techniques required for an authentic, well-balanced taste easily replicable at home.
- Whatever your favorite flavor profile – mildly spiced coconut curries or fiery hot vindaloos – Tastesmiths has a kit tailored for it thanks to their customization and wide selection.
So if you enjoy culinary adventures, it is safe to say in this Tastesmiths review that the company provides a veritable global tour appealing to cooks of all tastes and skill levels.
Pricing and Value
Tastesmiths positions itself in the premium segment with meal kit pricing ranging from £3.50-£5 per portion depending on ingredients and complexity. Monthly subscriptions earn 10-15% discounts, and bulk purchases can save further. How does the cost stack up against competitors and Tastesmiths’ value proposition?
- While more expensive than entry-tier providers, multi-cuisine boxes provide better value than recreating equally authentic dishes from scratch. Specialty ingredients included would cost much more if bought individually.
- Complex recipe development has already been done by Tastesmiths chefs. This saves home cooks significant effort and costs trying to achieve similar results themselves.
- Per-portion pricing is competitive once Tastesmiths quality, exotic ingredients, and recipe authenticity are factored in. Customers feel they get excellent value for money spent based on Tastesmiths reviews.
- Discounts from monthly subscriptions compound savings over time for regular customers. Bulk purchases also earn marginal discounts, a rarity in the prepared meal kit space.
Overall, Tastesmiths’ premium pricing matches the quality of their specialized global cuisine kits. While not the most affordable meal kit option, you certainly get what you pay for thanks to their quality ingredients, authentic spice blends, well-tested recipes, and overall superior product. Customers feel it provides excellent bang for their buck.
Ordering Experience
Tastesmiths offers customers flexibility in terms of ordering channels. You can purchase kits directly through their website or internationally recognized retailers:
Ordering Process
- Tastesmiths website offers the full range of their products with discounts, ability to subscribe/customize recurring orders, and excellent support
- Amazon UK features select best-selling meal kits eligible for Prime delivery
- Leading grocery chains like Waitrose, Ocado, Morrisons etc. stock popular variants
Delivery and Support
- Standard delivery is well packed and arrives in under 72 hours across the UK/EU
- Good customer service response times via email and chat during UK business hours
- Optimal ordering frequency depends on the consumption rate. Weekly and monthly options prevent waste from spoilage
It’s worth mentioning in this Tastesmiths review the ordering experience matches their premium product positioning through multiple purchase channels, reliable shipping, and helpful customer service.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Authentic exotic flavors: Carefully tested recipes deliver impressively genuine and complex tastes for global cuisines recreated at home
- Convenience: Specially designed kits contain prepped ingredients in exact quantities needed for straightforward cooking
- Customization: Most recipes support tweaking aspects like spice levels or ingredients
- Commitment to freshness: Emphasis on high-quality ingredients delivered at peak freshness
- Top-rated recipes: Easy-to-follow directions, beautifully presented photos, suggestions to reuse leftovers into new dishes
- Gift-friendly: Attractively packaged gift boxes work well for food lovers
Cons
- Premium pricing: Higher cost per serving compared to beginner meal kit brands
- Limited cuisines: Focused mainly on Indian, Thai and a handful of other cuisines vs extreme variety
- Availability: Retail distribution still ramping up through the website to fulfill all orders
These are all relatively modest trade-offs given Tastesmiths excellent product execution on dimensions like ingredient quality, authenticity, and convenience – the attributes most core customers care about.
Read more: Tastesmiths Curry Kits: Bringing Authentic Indian Cuisine into Home Kitchens
Tastesmiths Review: Final Verdict
If you love cooking and want to easily prepare restaurant-quality ethnic dishes at home, Tastesmiths kits offer immense value. This Tastesmiths review finds that their meal kits tick all the right boxes across essential parameters around product quality, flavor authenticity, ease of use, recipe customization, and effortless cooking of a variety of global cuisines.
While priced at a premium versus beginner meal kit brands, Tastesmiths delivers a premium experience through its focus on exotic spices and ingredients tailored beautifully into dishes you typically can’t easily source or prepare yourself. For its niche of authentic global cuisine recipes optimized for straightforward home cooking, Tastesmiths stands in a league of its own in the meal kit space.
The final rating breakdown is as follows:
- Product Quality: 5 stars
- Ease of Use: 5 stars
- Range and Flavors: 5 stars
- Pricing: 4 stars
With consistently outstanding marks across the board for attributes like ingredient quality, taste authenticity, balanced recipes, and customization options, Tastesmiths global cuisine meal kits earn a highly Recommended tag from this Tastesmiths review. With their new product range expansion planned in 2023 to cover even more ethnic cuisine themes and cooking methods, Tastesmiths future certainly looks very promising.
For the best deals, use these Tastesmiths coupons at check out on their official website tastesmiths.com. With any other questions, their customer support does an excellent job fielding pre-sales queries. Get cooking on a culinary adventure across the globe in your very own kitchen with Tastesmiths meal kits!
