I don't use a lot of herbs and spices and yet I have a huge rack full of them in the kitchen. I mainly use chives in my home made chicken and sweetcorn soup or in mash while using rosemary on chicken breasts. However I found that when fresh chives weren't growing in the colder months that even the cheap dried equivalent were retailing at almost £1 a tiny pot which was lasting for just 3 pots of soup and increased the price per pot and per bowl up much higher were they not included and so I decided to have a go with some mixed herbs to see if they were any better. While browsing the shelves there was a huge abundant choice of herbs to choose from but mixed herbs there wasn't such a huge choice maybe 3 pots with the very cheapest being Tesco Value dried, mixed herbs for a mere 19p, with the other retailing at over 4 times the price I decided I had nothing to loose and threw a pot into my trolley.

*~* Packaging *~*

The 18g of herbs come packaged in a small white tub that is very plain and simplistic, it reminds me of the old camera film tubs that you used to take to the chemist to be developed only on a bigger scale, a little higher, a lot rounder but the same idea. The outside of the tub is very simplistic with the regular Tesco label with the name of the product in red.

The tub is very simplistically packaged which is therefore reflected in the price. I would much rather have a product that was cheap yet done the job without over the top packaging increasing the price I have to pay which ultimately ends up in the bin anyway.

*~* Inside The Tub *~*

To get inside the tub you simply use the small flap of plastic that overhangs the top of the tub to pop the lid off and get inside. The first thing I noticed when I opened the tub was the very pungent smell of the herbs which gave me good hope that these weren't going to be bland and tasteless. I could definitely pick out the oregano and the sage but the others weren't so easy to identify individually. The back of the tub states that included are:

*Marjoram
*Basil
*Sage
*Oregano
*Thyme
*Parsley

There is a good mix of the herbs here but as I said there may be more of a couple of the herbs than other, perhaps they are cheaper or perhaps they just have a stronger aroma, I'm not entirely sure.

The herbs are all green with some having a lighter colour than others but honestly there seems to be a good mix of different shades (I admit I didn't inspect them under a microscope but they seemed to be even enough).

The tub was very easy to use and I found that the opening was more than wide enough for me to be able to take a good size pinch using my fore finger and thumb, it did become a little more difficult when the tub was starting to get empty but I was able to easily tilt the tub to get some herbs to slide out into the pot of soup.

*~* Using The Herbs *~*

To use these herbs I simply took a good sized pinch and threw them in a medium sized pot. When I gave the soup a taste I could definitely detect them but there definitely wasn't enough so I resorted to having a good 2 sized pinches in the pot which didn't really make much difference to the pot. I found that this was more than enough to provide my soup with a nice almost meaty flavour which probably sounds very strange but they had a lot of depth to them, it didn't feel like I was eating a bunch of chopped up green stuff that was exceptionally strong they gave a very delicate flavour that really enhanced the flavour of the soup. I also started to use this alongside other meals and found that the herbs that were mixed tasted much better than the individual herbs I had been using. I also feel that although they were very fine I much preferred this to large lumps that can have a very strong and unpleasant taste.

*~* My Opinion *~*

Overall I would most definitely recommend these herbs to anyone. The pot I first had was used within a couple of months but the more recent one has been sat for a good few months yet when I pop off the lid I still get the very fresh, pungent smell. For 19p you could use a whole tub of these per meal and it still would barely increase the price per portion/per meal which I am incredibly happy with as I don't really want to be spending money on something that although increases the flavour drains my pocket at the same time. I found that I was able to get numerous pots of soup from just one small tub which I feel is excellent value for money. Definitely one to give a try, realistically what do you have to loose?