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Buying because of packaging, not what's inside


mcohen

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In another thread about amaretti cookies, FatGuy made an interesting comment:

And those tins! Its worth buying the cookies just to have the tins, and its worth buying the tins just to have the cookies. Good thing they come together.

One of the reasons I ended up buying those same cookies was to also get the beautiful red tin the cookies came in. Sometimes, I'll buy or try something because the packaging strikes my eye as something beautiful worth having, irregardless of what's inside. I figure even if I'm disappointed by the product inside, at least I can reuse the jar or container or pacakaging. Or, sometimes, I'll just buy something and not even open it just to keep it as a decorative ornament.

Are there any kitchen goods or products that you bought just for its aesthetics?

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When we were in Sorrento last year, I had a choice of buying an olive oil in a regular glass bottle or a hand painted one. Same olive oil. I chose the hand painted one, even though it was more expensive. :biggrin: But that bottle, now empty, sits on my mantle and is a nice remembrance of a great trip.

Marlene

Practice. Do it over. Get it right.

Mostly, I want people to be as happy eating my food as I am cooking it.

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Ha. Actually last weekend I was browsing a wine/liquor store in another town I rarely visit. Anyways, this one bottle caught my eye, a Cava...

Usually the bottles are mediocre, maybe a nice design here or there. Yet this one was like, Whoa!. It was a bottle of Segura Viudas, though it may seem quite common; it was the first time I saw it. Being so mesmerized I had to get it, only mid 20s, not too bad.

Don't have a picture, though can see via link

http://images.send.com/100063_big.jpg

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I have several cannisters (Uncle Ben's, Campfire Marshmallows, Hershey, Pillsubry, etc.) that are pushing 20 or 30 years old - some picked up at garage sales, and at times I was insatiable clipper of "Proofs of Purchase" and always sent in for the premiums.

It must run in the family - I found some very old candy tins and some old Martha White stuff when my grandmother passed, and Mom has quite an inventory.

Oh, and a bunch of "Hava-Tampa" cigar boxes my grandfather used to keep. Great for nearly everything, but nothing is stored in them now. Then there were those old "Sucrets" tins...

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I'm like a magpie for brightly colored tins.

Dust is an eternal problem in my apartment, so I keep everything in some sort of container - thus a use for my pretty tins.

The square tins moon cakes come in are especially useful and attractive.

By the way, package design is an art, if a rather minor one. Sometimes the art is more apparent than others.

BB

Food is all about history and geography.

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When we were visiting friends in Cleveland, the Whole Foods had some rose wine on sale for $6 a bottle, or something like that. We didn't care about the wine, but the label had a beautiful old bicycle shop ad. We got a bottle for our friends who own our favorite bike shop of all time, and a bottle for us. Once the wine (which was nothing special, IIRC) was gone, the bottle got rinsed out and placed in our bicycle-themed half bathroom downstairs. We're suckers for all things beautiful and bicycle.

MelissaH

MelissaH

Oswego, NY

Chemist, writer, hired gun

Say this five times fast: "A big blue bucket of blue blueberries."

foodblog1 | kitchen reno | foodblog2

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We're suckers for all things beautiful and bicycle.

Not just food, but if something has a cute penguin or is penguin-shaped, I tend to want it. Hasn't happened with food, yet... no penguin containers that have caught my eye. :smile:

"I know it's the bugs, that's what cheese is. Gone off milk with bugs and mould - that's why it tastes so good. Cows and bugs together have a good deal going down."

- Gareth Blackstock (Lenny Henry), Chef!

eG Ethics Signatory

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I've bought a few bottles of Bridgeview's Blue Moon Riesling just to get the blue bottles. I find the wine weak... but Shasta daisies look *very* pretty in them. :rolleyes:

Shelley: Would you like some pie?

Gordon: MASSIVE, MASSIVE QUANTITIES AND A GLASS OF WATER, SWEETHEART. MY SOCKS ARE ON FIRE.

Twin Peaks

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We're suckers for all things beautiful and bicycle.

Not just food, but if something has a cute penguin or is penguin-shaped, I tend to want it. Hasn't happened with food, yet... no penguin containers that have caught my eye. :smile:

There's a "Little Penguin" wine that I buy from time to time, mostly because the penguin is cute (catches my eye, in addition to being inexpensive and drinkable).

...wine can of their wits the wise beguile, make the sage frolic, and the serious smile. --Alexander Pope

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Not just food, but if something has a cute penguin or is penguin-shaped, I tend to want it. Hasn't happened with food, yet... no penguin containers that have caught my eye. :smile:

There's a "Little Penguin" wine that I buy from time to time, mostly because the penguin is cute (catches my eye, in addition to being inexpensive and drinkable).

"I know it's the bugs, that's what cheese is. Gone off milk with bugs and mould - that's why it tastes so good. Cows and bugs together have a good deal going down."

- Gareth Blackstock (Lenny Henry), Chef!

eG Ethics Signatory

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I think a lot of wine is bought by the appearance of the label

And vice versa... I was a guest at someone's home and she served me a Vampire wine. I would never have bought it based on the packaging but it went down just fine with a bowl of spaghetti bolognese.

“Don't kid yourself, Jimmy. If a cow ever got the chance, he'd eat you and everyone you care about!”
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