Flavoreeds Review

Have you ever popped that reed in your mouth wishing it tasted like something other than cane? Do you want an easy way to tell when your reeds need to be replaced? Do you need some incentive for young beginners to practice? If you answered, "Yes," to any of the above questions, you may want to read this review and see if Flavoreeds are for you.

First Impressions: Flavoreeds makes flavored reeds for alto and tenor sax, clarinet, and German clarinet. They offer ten different flavors in strengths 1.5-3.5. They are currently only available in twin packs. I was sent blue raspberry, pina colada, strawberry and cinnamon to try and see what I thought of them. I opened up each twin pack and closely inspected each reed and immediately noticed some defects. One of the blue raspberry reeds had a tear, a cinnamon reed was missing part of it's tip, and a pina colada's tip was warped right out of the box. I decided I would soak each reed and observe it's playability and taste. I numbered each reed, soaked it, played a quick song on each, and recorded how it tasted and how it played (if it closed up, squeaked, and if it looked warped after soaking). Here were my results:

Strawberry:

1.  Taste- sweet Playing- tip was warped, airy sound and closed up often

2.  Taste- sweet, more strawberry-flavored than first Playing- like a normal Vandoren

Blue Raspberry:

1. Taste- sweet for first few seconds, then taste disappeared Playing- tip warped, closed up when I tried to play

2. Taste- sweet, lasted throughout playing Playing- like a normal Vandoren

Pina Colada:

1. Taste- sweet Playing- like a normal Vandoren

2. Taste- sweet Playing- like a normal Vandoren BUT tip was warped

Cinnamon:

1. Taste- like cinnamon Playing- like a normal Vandoren

2. Taste- like cinnamon Playing- very difficult to produce a tone, when produced very airy (this was the reed missing part of the tip)

Overall, the success rating was 50% which, of course, isn't very good. This could have been caused in flavoring process and the packaging. Also, they might now have inspected each reed. I would like to note that the blue raspberry reeds turned my lips and tongue blue (a side effect notorious with these reeds) and the reeds left a sticky residue on my mouthpiece. The only reed that really tasted like it's state flavor was blue raspberry and cinnamon.

Cost: $4.95 per twin pack

Pros:

• flavors encourages playing for young children
• comes in packs of two so you don't have to buy many to see if you like them

Cons:

• $5 per pack is a bit pricey
• only a 50% success rate
• leaves a sticky residue after playing
• little quality control to pull damaged reeds before getting packaged
• some reeds came warped
• can turn your lips a different color
  

Rating: 2/5 stars
The potential for this product is high if they fix problems like equal flavor intensity, safe packaging to ensure no damage during transit, inspecting reeds to make sure they aren't damaged before packaging, and lowering the price or offering them in larger quantities (like boxes of 10).

They sent me eight reeds, a business card, and a sticker











Blue Raspberry flavored

Pina Colada flavored

Strawberry flavored

Cinnamon flavored

front and back view of the blue raspberry reed













one of the reeds came with a tear in it...













A cinnamon reed was damaged when it arrived

The results of my test





















http://www.flavoreeds.com