Gourmet Company - A review & some first hand shopping experience.

Hi Everyone, today I am going to review on an amazing baking supply online store, Gourmet Company. Shopping is therapeutic but sometimes finding the right products when it comes to baking is difficult. Cost is another issue, these days anything labelled baking is sold 3 times the actual (reasonable price) I think this is because baking is still done is closets and many of us who are passionate about baking struggle to find a good baking supply store. Living in India I struggle to find baking ingredients in local stores, still ingredients like cupcake liners, gel food colours, sparklers are never seen in the big city that I live in. Whereas that never used to be the case abroad. Having said this I did do a frantic search of all things baking in the online world and trust me there are quite a few notable baking supply sites that I did find, Gourmet Company being one of them. But somehow to me Gourmet Company did stand apart in terms of the pricing and the huge display of products that it offered. Like always I did spend hours gawking at their site under ever section like Baking Self, Pantry, World  cuisine, gourmet gifts and so on to name a few. I treated myself by ordering few products that caught my attention and I will sharing today my experiences with you.

I think it wouldn't be fair if I do not talk about Gourmet's range of products, so here goes.

1. Baking shelf:

You will find a huge range of baking flours, sugars, baking mixes, edible colours, sprinkles, nuts, seeds, canned fruit, cupcake and cake liners and so on. If you love baking like me I am sure you are already lost in this category ;-). 

 

2. The Pantry:

This is really and interesting section of seasoning,  mustards, oil, vinegar, sauces, dried mushroom, seasoning cubes and gravies.

 

3. Healthy Choices:

World famous quinoa, cousous, dried fruits, nuts, seeds, flours, grains and various other products are found here to name a few.

3. World Cuisine:

This is another interesting section where I saw many ingredients that I have been longing to get like for one is the tahini sauce and thai tom yan chilli paste. They have products in these cuisines - Thai, Lebanese, Morroccon, Lebanese and Japanese.

4. Gourmet Gifts:

Its an amazing feeling to get an hamper and gourmet company has a huge range of lovely hampers. They also have options where you can make your own hamper of 8-10 products isn't that so cool? I totally loved the idea of picking our own choices of products tucking them in a basket and sending it as a gift to be delivered to someone. Truly a very thought gift and an amazing idea by Gourmet.

Happiness is opening parcels, and when the parcel arrived from Gourmet I was super excited to open up their neatly packed products. It was so impressive to see the company taking so much care to deliver goods. I have heard from friends on the horrible experiences they have had shopping online for baking ingredients where the colors/ sprinklers used to spill and the company would never refund/ replace them. I found Gourmet Company taking so much care in their packing to avoid such mishaps and like they say first impression is the best impression and for me Gourmet was spot on. Take a look at how I received my parcel & the products I had ordered from their website.

PRODUCTS I HAD ORDERED

1. VIOLET & ROSE GEL COLOUR
2. 10" SCALLOPED CAKE BOARD IN SILVER
3. 4 SHAPED COOKIE CUTTER WITH IMPRESSIONS
4. EDIBLE FOOD SPARKLER IN SILVER
5. HINTZ COCOA POWDER
6. PATTERNED CUPCAKE LINER
7. PLUM CAKE LINER IN GREEN

MY EXPERIENCE WITH GOURMET COMPANY

All the products ordered were as seen in the website, I felt the liners were of good quality and have already put them to test. I will be sharing pictures of them in my food posts later. The gel colours were the best and the edible sparklers add sparkle to my cakes. I have always wanted to get scalloped cake boards and never found them anywhere expect for the wilton scalloped cake board which are pretty expensive, these were so cheap for 10 nos I felt the pricing was so reasonable. My overall impression is totally impressive products from Gourmet.

WEBSITE 

Gourmetco.in has a very simple website. The issue I faced is finding the products, although the sections are simple I felt the categorizing them should be improved. Online customer support is impressive for a baking and food site like Gourmet. More pictures for products can be included, like a different view/ zoom view can be available. I felt that related products for each category can be included also recently viewed product list that makes the user experience good. I hope Gourmet is listening to my concerns and make changes in their website so that it makes our time and effort effective.

SHIPPING 

Shipping is done all over India only. They do free shipping for orders above Rs. 1000/- else its Rs 75/- per order. Products take 3-5 working days to get delivered. Goumet uses reputed couriers and air fright to deliver goods. 

PAYMENT METHODS

Cash on delivery
Pay using bank transfer (i.e Deposit in bank account)
Online payment (Pay using Credit card, Debit card & Net banking)

CUSTOMER SUPPORT 

Very responsive & website ready customer care, we can chat online with an executive with concerns regarding purchase. Once the order is placed I received an email with the receipt, I was also intimated via email on the shipping process. Good were delivered within 3 days time.

Pros

1. When I went ahead to order products, it did take me lot of time to choose what I want owing to the huge range gourmet had to offer. I added products to the basket and my internet got disconnected. After an hour I received a call from Gourmet customer care checking with you if they would like to go ahead and place the order on my behalf. I was so happy to see a responsive staff making my job easier. 
2. I had ordered the products on Friday and by tuesday I called to check them when I will be receiving the parcel, they instantly asked me to wait as they tried to track my order and to my surprise I received the products on the same day.
3. Packaging is the best, they do a proper job to wrap all the products individually with a bubble wrap to avoid spillage / damage.
4. The quality of the products were really good and look quite expensive for the price paid.
5. Reasonable price and huge variety to choose from.

Cons 

1. Baking pans, cake stands, icing nozzles were something I was looking for in their website. Hopefully they add them soon so that I can place my next order soon.
2. Fondant, glucose syrup, chocolate moulds, baking chocolate were not available, hope Gourmet is reading this to add them soon.

To sum up I see more positives with Gourmet and I will definitely shop more often with them. For now I am signing off with my overall rating with gourmet. Hope you all have a good time reading this post, for all things Gourmet visit Gourmet Company and do share with me your experiences. 

PRICING - 4/5

QUALITY - 5/5

PACKAGING - 5/5

DELIVERY - 5/5

SAFETY USING WEBSITE - 5/5

WEBSITE INTERFACE - 4/5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT - 5/5

FINAL VERDICT - Safe, reliable, reasonable & quality shopping experience. A bakers heaven.