Station Grill Finishing Salt - Espresso product reviews

I'm a bit of a coffee fanatic (that perhaps should read addict) so I was intrigued about Espresso finishing salt. First up obviously is the initial smell when you open the container. I loved the smell which was just as I expected with it smelling like instant coffee granules. I decided to try it with a coffee to begin. I didn't really like the salt taste though maybe I used a little to much.

Next up was trying it on meat so I sprinkled it over a stew. The taste didn't really do much for me and I think it was a bit like just putting some coffee granules on my food.

I then decided to try it on a dessert. I sprinkled it on vanilla ice cream with banana and quite liked that taste as the salt with the banana and then coffee with the vanilla icecream all complemented each other. I've never had banoffee pie but think I might give it a try as I think this might go nicely with that also. Next up I had made a feijoa and apple crumble so decided to try some of that with the Espresso salt sprinkled over the top. This was my favourite and the taste definitely was enhanced by the use of the finishing salt.

Overall I think this is a product that is more of a luxury than a staple in your pantry but if you have it you will be able to find uses for it. This container should give you 50 servings so it will last a long time. If you want a product that will give your dishes a slightly unique flavour this is worth trying.

I am a BIG salt fan, and a HUGE coffee fan - and love to try new seasonings and flavours and so was very rapt to be chosen to review this lovely sounding product after submitting a request.

A funny combination, was what struck me first - but having travelled a fair amount, certainly not outside the norm, but definitely different for the NZ market. The shaker itself is a standard shaker, so will fit in with all your other spices and seasonings on the shelf. Nice change to see a black label on it - looks very posh!

Peeling the seal off - the fragrant smell of espresso coffee hits you - not too strong, but gets the taste buds up and moving. I would not recommend trying it on its own - it was quite salty, to be honest, and although looks like coffee, does not taste like it.

Cooking up my usual lunch of vegies and eggs, I decided that I would try this on it, as a seasoning while I was cooking it. Tossing it on, you again smell the salt, but do get a slight smokey smell too (in a good way!). Eating the vegies with it mixed through was great - a nice combination of flavour from the coffee, though in my opinion the coffee flavour could be increased, with the main flavour being the salt.

Personally, although I would use it again, it would not be my first choice, as it is quite pricey for what it is, and is not too different to garlic salt, as the espresso flavour is not too strong. For a coffee lover / gift basket / something new to try - definitely recommend it.

I wasn't sure what I was expecting but a product that goes with both sweet and savoury made me want to try and see for myself that this product delivers.

I opened and just sniffed it, it smelt so nice. I put some with my chips and found it rather nice, not too salty but a good smoked taste and the coffee taste wasn't too overpowering. I made some instant pudding just to be able to taste it on something sweet. The kids asked for some so I gave them a little sprinkle and for myself I was a bit too generous and found it was a bit too overpowering but then I mixed the topping into the rest of the pudding and it spread the taste very nicely and the sweetness was not that noticeable.

I decided to give it another go just to be sure that the taste was good. I put some with my sausages (I accidentally burnt the sausages) and it tasted great, didn't taste the burnt taste at all. I was a bit adventurous and did some baking, I made a recipe I'm familiar with so that I can't blame any funny taste on the recipe and then put a good sprinkle of the salt over the icing and cut myself a piece. I loved the taste, the sweet icing sugar taste was not as strong as usual and it was nice. My sons had some of the cake as well but neither of them was that impressed with the new taste.

I would use this again as it has so many uses but might have to make sure the sweet things have some that is not salted so the kids can stop complaining that it is not sweet enough for them.

I'm a huge fan of garlic salt, but when I saw this come up on offer I had to experiment and asked to review it, and yay me! I got it to try.

Yes indeed this is espresso coffee merged with sea salt, not a combination I would usually expect, nor even consider. Popping the lid on this, all that I can smell is espresso coffee, which is enough to make me not want to put the shaker down. I had a couple of bits of this on it's own and you get a strong salty taste coupled with coffee, the coffee wasn't the main feature (the salt really takes over) but it is there, a kind of smoky coffee taste that lingers after the taste of the salt has gone, rather nice.

I decided to forgo my usual garlic salt and tried this on my dinner and I have to say that I rather enjoyed it. The salt did what salt does to a meal, but the espresso hint that was there as well made my meal slightly salty, sweet and smoky all at the same time, a good mix that had me happily finishing off the dish. Since this says that it goes on sweet dishes as well I sprinkled some on my ice cream. I really wasn't expecting it to go well with my rum and raisin ice cream but it did well enough that I would use it again on desert, but I think I will put it on a coffee ice cream next time.

Making biscuits, I decided to put this in my mix, instead of regular salt, just to see how it might come out. Eating my chocolate chip cookies fresh from the oven, it was a bit more salty than usual, but there was that tiny hint of espresso, so not a bad addition to it at all. At $10 for 90 grams, it's a bit steep for me considering the same amount of garlic salt is around the $3 mark. However, you don't need as much of this as you might other salts and so it would last a decent length of time, so I could see myself buying this as a gift for the coffee lovers in my life.