Food Review of Sugar and Spice cookie and brownie

[Grazie]

I posted a review of my very bad (dry, chalky, crusty and brittle) Sugar and Spice brownie with walnuts and oatmeal with raisin cookies and now it disappeared! What gives?
I paid an average price of 12.10 - 12.45 pesos for each and hoping that I would at least get ONE brownie or ONE cookie that is moist and chewy just like the REAL thing is/are.
I am not sure why my post is missing altogether. I posted it after Mr. Almeida's intro of himself and cookieline in this forum. Given that it might have been posted in the incorrect thread my intention was to let others know that I got unsatifastory product from Sugar and Spice.
I still have the receipt and the 2 boxes.
Please do not erase this food review - Mr. Almeida should know that his products that are being sold at Jumbo are dry and nothing like the cookie or brownie that I was expecting. Thank you.

 

[sergio]

I had the same experience with their brownies. The truth is that brownies have a very short shelf life. if they are tightly wrapped in plastic they can last a couple of days but generally speaking they are not good after the 1st day or so. Better to buy their other cookie products. I find them better than the usual junk cookies produced in Argentina but the price is really high - higher than what I'd expect to pay in the US.

 

[mini]

Better to buy their other cookie products. I find them better than the usual junk cookies produced in Argentina but the price is really high - higher than what I'd expect to pay in the US.

Which cookies did you buy that were good? I tried the chocolate chip & they were very disappointing. Due to high price, I haven't tried any others yet. I'd certainly try again with a recommendation.

 

[harpo]

I certainly hope posts aren't being removed for being critical of certain organisations.

Sugar and Spice have a beautifully presented website, but the fact they don't give prices says something to me. As the saying goes: 'If you need to ask the price, you can't afford it'.

 

[nikad]

It might be a good idea to contact Sugar and Spice directly in the first place instead of posting on a public forum, I know Frank takes great pride on his product and chances are that there might have been a problem. They have both a website in English/SPanish and a blog.

 

[Grazie]

thank you for the suggestion nikad, I will do that. The premise why I posted here originally (one that is still M.I.A) was because frank introduced himself here at one time and his line of cookies, so just like any review we all do on restaurants, places to eat and donuts I wanted to know if others here had the same not so pleasant experience like I did. But contacting Mr. Almeida is a very good idea. thanks again.

 

[SugarandSpice]

Dear all,

I have not checked this site in a while and for that I apologize. Thankfully, a friend has alerted me to this thread.

We are still a small family run company that has a production facility that still cuts chocolate by hand for example. We did not fill our space with machines that are loaded on one end and products emerge all packaged on the other end.

We also strive to make small batches and not have large stocks to then fill out orders with. That would be easier to do, but we decide to hustle and bake everyday to try and keep the products that we ship as fresh as possible.

If you ever have a problem with any of our products we would love to hear about it. It would be of great help to us. We welcome interaction with consumers and do not shy away from it.

Every pack that we sell has a lot number and an expiration date. Those two pieces of information, together with the store where you bought it from, would be of great help to me.

For those two people that have written about your bad experience please print out your post and bring it into our store. We will gladly replace that product even if you don't have it anymore. The ideal would be for me to count on that information that I asked above, but I will exchange it anyway.

Many things could have happened and just on reading these comments the most likely scenario is that those packs have been around for a while. I know the supermarkets do make an effort to place the new packs in the back, but I am sure that some old ones float around. Also, the bags could have failed with a small rupture.

In any case, we do check the lot numbers and since we have so very very few complaints it is easy to rule out any production errors at this point. In fact, we have never received a complaint about any of our cookies. But, we check on that possibility any way and that is why we would really like that information.

So please, if you have a concern regarding our products do not be afraid to contact me directly.

Sincerely yours,
Frank E. Almeida
pedidos at sugarandspice dot com dot ar

 

[harpo]

I agree it is a good idea to contact a company directly with a complaint - after all, they can hardly address a problem if they aren't informed about it. On the other hand, I see no reason why a company can't be criticised on a public forum - that's business, I'm afraid!

As for me, I'll certainly be trying Sugar and Spice products next time I'm in BA - I hope they taste as good as they look on the site.

 

[SugarandSpice]

Dear all,

I also wanted to address the comments regarding prices. We are first and foremost a manufacturing company that serves many different businesses from mom & pops to multinational companies.

We are not a major multinational company ourselves and therefore do not have the weight to dictate to every single company that buys our product at what price they can sell our products in their stores.

Each business that we sell to has many different variables that go into their own costs. Also, they all operate differently with us as well. I can not charge the same price for my products to someone that pays cash on delivery as I can to someone that needs 60 days to pay, or someone that gives me only one centralized address as opposed to multiple delivery addresses. I could go on giving you more examples as to cost variables.

This is not unique to us. Since I was also very curious about this part of the market I used to go out and price a basket of goods in many different types of businesses. Almost every single product on the market today has different prices depending on where you get it. Even McDonald's does this and it makes perfect logical sense. Some places have higher rent than others; some places have lots of sales volume; some places have seasonal sales volume, etc.

At this point I can not put up pricing because it is different depending on where you buy our products.

If you do go directly to our store you will see a price list posted in our store. If you are gravely concerned regarding this you can then just go to our store. We are not as conveniently located; we close for lunch and our hours on the weekend are not the most convenient either. Those types of variables should be taken into account.

If you still have a question regarding our pricing policy then you should contact us and give us an opportunity to respond.

Kind regards,
Frank E. Almeida

 

[SugarandSpice]

Hi Harpo,

I agree that people can write their criticisms in public. I just think that it is unfair if they do so and do not take any steps to communicate their displeasure to that company.

Was there an isolated problem or was their a trend of problems?

I am skeptical of people who complain just for the sake of complaining and do nothing to better their experience. In this case, I can only summarize that they are isolated complaints. I am lucky enough to have run into this and I can at least ask those people to please share some information with me.

I can also ask them to please contact me so that I can apologize to them and see if I can get the chance to make things better.

However, I think the pricing question was unfair. Have you had the chance to compare the price of our cookies to Pepperidge Farm cookies for example?

We are baking cookies with real chocolate and lots of almonds. Have you seen the price of almonds in the marketplace? or the price of chocolate for that matter?

Saludos,