| San Francisco Bread Review | Grace Baking Olive Bread |
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| Summary | |
| Appearance : | Good |
| Taste : | Reasonable |
| Overall grade : | B- |
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| The bread | |
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| The wrapper | |
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| Back of the wrapper | |
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| Ingredients | |
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| Nutrition | |
| Click on the photos for larger view | |
| Bread name | Olive bread |
| Baker | Grace Baking, Richmond |
| Purchased | Tuesday, May 6, 2003, 2:30PM |
| From | Safeway, 4100 Redwood Rd, Oakland |
| Tested | Tuesday, May 6, 2003, 7:30PM |
| Price | $3.59 |
| Weight | 17.7 oz. |
| Size (LxWxH) | 9.5" x 4.5" x 3" |
Appearance
The appearance is pleasant with nice ridges on top. The olives are very apparent on the outside. The density of the loaf is average. The crust is disappointingly soft, almost to the point of non-existence. Otherwise the loaf is resilient. The smell of the loaf is fairly strong, with what I am tempted to call a burnt olive smell, but that does not do it justice: it smells better than it sounds. The loaf is easy to cut and makes nice-looking slices. The inside smell is surprisingly different from the outside smell, much more bread than olive. The inside looks nice with a fair number of olive bits visible.
Taste
The crust is definitely too soft, that diminishes the enjoyment of the bread as a whole. The consistency of the body is good, but, as so often with olive breads, the olive bits are too few, so there is actually very little olive flavor, except when you hit a big chunk. I could swear that the olives are grouped towards the surface to make it look like there are more olives than there really are. The taste of the bread itself, which is quite apparent since the olives play a relatively minor role, is OK but not great. It is reasonably moist.
Nutrition
The sodium content is very high (330mg), which is a downside of olive breads. And the olives also bring in a bit of fat. I was surprised to see no dietary fiber at all. Otherwise, the list of ingredients is commendably short and simple. I like the fact that it's essentially just flour and olives.
Conclusion
I love olive bread. I mean, I *really* like it. But this one disappointed me. It's not bad, but I have higher expectations, and the insufficient concentration of olives is a serious problem.