Product Review: Tessemae’s

Written by Kaylee Franklin

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If you haven’t noticed by now, I’m a big foodie. Part of being a foodie is being big on sauces, dressings, dips, marinades, and all those extra add-ons to food to make it that much better. Today I’ll be letting you know of my newest clean, healthy, and tasty additions to my meals. 

One of the hardest parts about being a foodie is finding healthy ingredients. I believe everyone wants their food to taste amazing, and have the yummy goodness of greasy fried food but unfortunately, we can’t always have that. I know myself personally, I love having dips, sauces, dressings, and marinades all mixed into my meals. My favorite go-to is ranch, while a lot of others I know love ketchup. The hard part with having these delicious additions to our favorite meals is that they can contain an absurd amount of sugar, salt, and fat. Having a healthier option to sneak into a meal would be a nice touch to help us feel a little bit better about what we’re consuming. 

For Co-Founder and CEO Greg Vetter, this was his exact same thought process. Greg came home from work one day to realize his mom's famous lemon garlic salad dressing had been stolen. That’s when the idea for Tessemae’s came to be. Greg began doing some research and found that there weren’t any healthy alternatives to the dressings and marinades he loved, so he decided to create them himself. 

In Episode 126, Lee sat down with Greg to get a deep dive of Tessemae’s. Greg and Lee talked about his childhood growing up in Annapolis, what it was like playing professional lacrosse for three years, to realizing a friend stole his mother's lemon garlic salad dressing out of their own house, and how it sparked the idea to launch Tessemae’s.

Now that we know how Tessemae’s came to be, we can take a deeper look into their products. Available in retail stores nationwide, including Whole Foods, Tessemae’s offers a variety of all-natural salad dressings, sauces, marinades, dips, and condiments that are gluten-free, vegan, and sugar-free. I got to try almost all of their main dressings, from Classic Greek, Creamy Ranch, Cilantro Lime Ranch, Lemon Garlic, and more. It was an incredible tasting experience!

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to cover all of them in this review, but I will be letting you know of my top three favorites and some notable mentions. But before we get into the reviews, let’s cover the basics: packaging and pricing.

We all know I love when a brand color coordinates with its flavors, and Tessemae’s did just that. Each flavor has its own color, Green for Avocado Ranch, Orange for Habanero Ranch, Yellow for Everything Bagel Ranch, and the list goes on for all of their products. Each bottle has a picture of the key ingredients or a picture of a bagel for the Everything Bagel. I think it adds a nice touch to the bottles.

When it comes to adding Tessemae’s into your meals, you have a few options to choose from. You can choose the dressing route, and pick your favorites from their 11 different dressings, each individually priced at $5.99. Which ends up around the same price as their competitors- but remember you’re getting all-natural ingredients when purchasing Tessemae’s. If you’re wanting to try all of their dressings or a good amount of them, I recommend going with the Pantry Pack. This pack is priced at $48.99, and you’ll get 6 of the 11 dressings: Classic Italian, Classic Balsamic, Lemon Pepper, Classic Ranch, Cilantro Lime Ranch, and Buffalo Ranch.

Not only do they have dressing options, but you can also try out their Mayo’s and To-Go Packs, and Marinades, all under the $7 price point. If you’re wanting to try out a dressing or marinade not listed in the Pantry Pack, they offer a “Build Your Own 4 Pack OR 6 Pack” so go stock up on your soon-to-be favorites!

Now that we’ve covered the basics, I think it’s time to get into my favorites and honorable mentions! Starting us off is of course going to be the Creamy Ranch. Now this one threw me off at first because I wasn’t expecting the everyday flavor of Hidden Valley ranch, and this has a different flavor to it. It took me a minute to narrow down the flavor, and I realized I was tasting a lot of Dill flavoring, which is one of the key ingredients. I personally thought the dill taste was a lot at first and wasn’t getting a lot of ranch flavor to it, but after a few tastes, I started to love this different take on Ranch. 

Next up on my favorites list is the Avocado Ranch. Now, I told you all the ranch is my favorite dressing of all time, I eat it with almost everything, and Avocado Ranch is a close second, so I was expecting to love this one as well, and boy was I right! This one is the perfect combination of avocado and ranch. Super creamy, and it’s truly one of the best ranch dressings I’ve had. I love throwing this dressing on a taco bowl!

My other favorite was the Honey Poppyseed.  This one acts as a dressing and marinade. Personally, I love using it as a marinade with chicken. It’s the perfect sweet flavor and letting it marinate with the chicken gives it the perfect savory taste. It’s also really good in salads with strawberries and feta. It’s the best light and tasty dressing. 

You really can’t go wrong with any of their products, but for some notable mentions, I also love the Lemon Garlic dressing, which I feel like everyone has to try as it’s what helped launch Tesseme’s in the first place! Another great option is the Buffalo Ranch for those of you looking for some extra heat to your meal. 

If you’re interested in trying them out, head on over to their website, and while you’re there you can snag some recipe ideas along with taking a look at all of their products. We hope you enjoy them as much as we did!

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