Chocolate Citrus Pancakes

While I'm waiting for my new gas range to be installed (I'm about ready to pull out my spiral curls over this), I was able to use a free-standing cooktop to test out a pancake mix. This is a chocolate and orange mix from the Live Green Co. Since I normally like or even love that combination of flavors, I decided to accept this product to review it via the Amazon Vine program. This article about my experience with the mix is an unexpected bonus for both brands. No other form of compensation was received beyond being provided one box of the mix.

Let me start by saying that my entire household liked these pancakes but we had very different opinions about what they tasted like. I thought they tasted very buttery and citrus with the chocolate a lagging third flavor; neither of the other family members got citrus at all however. One of them didn't think these tasted sweet at all while I thought the orange was quite sweet and I found I didn't want any type of syrup on it at all. Everyone agreed it was quite buttery, I'll mention why below. I want you to look at the photo of the finished pancakes. Every one of the four batches that I made turned out this way even if I turned up the heat, added more time, or did the opposite (why I had to play around will be discussed soon). This explained the photos with toppings over the center of the pancake, doesn't it? The outside remained crispy and the inside wasn't as fluffy as regular or even whole grain pancakes I've made from a mix in the past.

I had two major problems with this product.

First, the lack of clear instructions specifically related to the amount of water to use. There are four servings of the mix and the directions say to mix it with 2/3 of the sachet of water.... so basically you dump out the mix and then fill that plastic bag with water. However, the bags/sachets are not marked for 2/3 and I discovered that they leaked out of the bottom. I ended basing the amount of water partly on what I know pancake batter should look and feel like.

Second, while this is promoted as an eco-friendly brand it sent me mixed messages. The box and the first bag that all of the individually wrapped sachets are in are certainly recyclable or even will break down in nature, they are just paper. However the sachets were plastic and not the recyclable kind.

A minor issue I had is that the amount of butter and oil you use (yes, you use both) for each set of four pancakes (one sachet of the mix) is a lot so if you are worried about fat or cholesterol be careful. I thought surely four pancakes don't need this much fats to fry in but the batter sucked up the oil and butter fast so I had to keep adding more. That was annoying because it made the process of making these take even more time.

Would I recommend this mix? If they changed the packaging inside and gave clearer directions, I would. As it stands, these do not earn our highest status here on The Chocolate Cult.