Pollen Ranch Organic Fennel Pollen Seasoning, Perfect For Cooking And Seasoning With Fennel Flavor, Made From Premium Organic Fennel Flowers - 0.5 Ounces. Can

Good quality, fragrant and tasty.

I ordered this product after reading a recipe for a home adaptation of the Mezzi Rigatoni With Fennel Sausage Ragu in the Red Hen Restaurant menu that appeared in the Washington Post. If you like fennel, this is a great product; you just have to shell out some bucks to get a very small amount (although it is also true that a little goes a long way). I found (like several other reviewers) that the cover was very tight and difficult to remove without spilling the fennel pollen (which you really don't want to do); I overcame this issue by sticking a table knife tip between the lips of the cover and the container and twisting slightly to loosen the cover. Problem solved.

I use this in combo for authentic porchetta seasoning. It is spending but worth it.

Fennel pollen is my new favorite flavor. It ads a flavor that is reminiscent of sausage to anything you put it in because of the heavy use of fennel seed in many sausages. I used it in a fig and prosciutto stuffing for Thanksgiving and it was fantastic. You'll definitely find yourself adding to dishes on the fly just to up the savory-ness of the dish. For those that do not like fennel/anise/black licorice flavor, do not fear fennel pollen. It does not taste like anise. The only reason this product didn't get 5 stars is because the tin it comes in is awful. It's so hard to open that you will end up dumping half of the product on the counter when you finally do pry the lid off. Unfortunately I can't buy this specific product again because of the packaging. But, the pollen itself is high quality.

This is amazing stuff. Buy it. Sniff it and think "it doesn't smell all that great," but trust that it'll taste a lot different when cooked. Use a pinch or so in red sauce or wherever you want a richer, more complex "Italian" taste. Taste the results. Make noises and gestures like the Gourmand Skeksis from "Dark Crystal" in the feast scene. I'm not kidding. It's that good. It's fennel, but you won't taste fennel once it's cooked. It's more like ZOMG WHAT DID YOU PUT IN THIS. It tastes a bit of a spicier, richer oregano, maybe a hint of cumin. If you love good food, and you love Italian, please treat yourself and try this stuff. 1/2 oz is a tin the size of the ones you see at organic shops at the registers with the hard European fruit-flavored hard candies in them, like 2.5" or 3" across. They're not even half filled, probably due to settling, but you really don't use a lot at any one time, so it'll last a long time. The manufacturer I ordered from thoughtfully included recipes and free samples of other spice blends using fennel pollen; I gave one of the little samples to a friend, who was sniffing it all day with the biggest smile on her face. This is a definite good thing to have.