Taste Test - Southern Culture Artisan Foods Pancakes

In my internet travels I happened upon this company one day and was immediately intrigued by the items that they sell. I first saw their southern grits on a website but not long after, came upon their wide variety of pancake mix flavors. The site was amazing looking so I decided to give them an order and check them out. (Let that be a lesson, presentation matters). I realized later that the founder had been on Shark Tank and the Sunday I tried my first two varieties, the episode with the founder came on CNBC, it must be destiny!

So this week, I tried the Banana pudding and strawberry shortcake flavors. I also have in my cabinet, regular Vanilla and Bourbon Salted Pecan which I have to try. Now I mention these four flavors because the line of pre-made pancake and waffle mixes that Southern Culture offers is pretty large. Check out their shop and just see how many they have, you could be trying them out for months, I will have a link to them below.

The canisters that I received were the smaller sizes and each is good for about 12 pancakes which means a family of four can each have a short stack for sunday breakfast. Now compared to the Aunt Jemima's of the world, it seems to be a bit pricey. These were each about 8 bucks before shipping. However, that would be cheaper than IHOP or most other chains and restaurants that have flavored pancakes. The other positive is that many of the flavors can also be made in an acceptable manner for Vegans.

After all of that, let's talk about the pancakes themselves, the formula is pretty simple, add eggs, butter, and milk if you choose to go the traditional route and drop them onto your griddle. The one thing that I didn't expect was the little bits and pieces that are in the mix. The strawberry shortcake pancakes show you little pieces of strawberries that you taste once you bite into them. The banana pudding variety has little pieces of vanilla wafers maybe, or something that gives you a slight little flavor kick. Unfortunately, I do mean 'slight'. The one issue that I have with these pancakes is that the flavor profile is very subtle. Now some of that can be attributed to the natural ingredients, sure, they don't come through as prominently as artificial ones, but it just seemed to lack a little bit of punch on their own. Now I could see a scenario where one would take the Banana Pudding pancakes, make them and then top with some sliced bananas and whipped cream and have something really special, but just for myself I did expect it to stand out a little more.


In the end I didn't think that the Shortstacks Pancake and Waffle Mix was bad, it did let me down somewhat and maybe that was my own faulty expectations. With two down and two to go I have a better frame of what to expect even if I would still like a larger hit of flavor and ability to really taste something different. I also still have a desire to try the other southern favorites like grits and fried chicken batter. If you are bringing the family together with some toppings and some time, it can be a great party where the pancakes are the center of the family. However, just eating them they didn't bring the quite what I was expecting and that's unfortunate.

Rating: 2.5/5