Knox’s rubs are new to me. According to their bio they have been on the market since 2005. So I guess it probably hasn’t had the time to be fully circulated around the globe yet. I am glad I am able to give this rub a whirl.

As soon as I saw this I thought it was a mini version of the puzzle boxes from Hellraiser! Pretty cool in my books. Be careful though when trying to open up this box as well. If you use a sharp object and pierce the bag within you are going to get an unexpected taste test of powder.

Dry Rubs have been and hit and miss for me. I find there aren’t any average rubs, just great ones and bad ones. After doing some research on Knox I was satisfied to think that they have a tried and true recipe. So my initial expectations are high.

The field taste is coming straight from Knox’s website. Chicken Wings with Jamaican Jerk Dry Rub.

Ingredients: Jamaican All Spice, Black Pepper, Ginger, Mace, Hungarian Sweet Paprika, Thyme, Cinnamon, Clove, Brown Sugar, Sea Salt and Cayenne.

So how was it? Well not so good.. I thought I may have done something wrong, but the rest of the wings were absolutely perfect. You see, the aroma didn’t carry over to the taste and second of all (this may be a Canadian thing) it didn’t taste like jerk. I expect jerk to be exotic, savory and spicy. This was well. Just cinnamon. To put this into perspective I used half the amount of Nando’s Lemon & Herb Grinder on a few wings and the taste was strong and extremely flavorful.

I tried really hard to like this but it just wasn’t there. Maybe wings aren’t the answer for these. I hope not because a lot of work seems to have gone into this.

The other glaring negative I found was the baggie this stuff comes packed inside. You really have to be careful on your initial opening not to puncture this bag. Secondly once you have it opened you have be careful not to spill it every time you take it out. Having this in some type of container to sprinkle it would be a good idea. I am sure they can fit that inside the box.

To wrap this up, it isn’t bad, but it isn’t great. The cinnamon was way to powerful and there was absolutely no kick to this. Jerk (at least in Canada) is spicy…..even by commercial standards. To be fair though I am going to give this a second try in the near future.

Packaging 10/10 – until you open it – 2/10 once it is open
Aroma 8/10 – the aroma is fabulous – just not jerk aroma
Appearance 9/10 – This looks great – lots of visible herbs and spices
Taste 4/10 – all the great points didn’t make it into the taste
Heat 2/10 – No real noticeable heat

Overall 5/10 – Some people may find this to be incredible – it just missed the mark for me.

Knox Spice Company
Chicago, IL 60640
www.knoxspice.com