ChineseCookingDemystified
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Quick heads up: the next video's gunna be sponsored
🕑 Added 2019-01-11 03:47:20 +0000 UTCSo just wanted to let all of you know in advance so you're not surprised or anything.
A couple months back I contacted the company Epices du Cru on a whim. I knew a guy that worked there from /r/cooking, and I knew they did a good job re sourcing Sichuan peppercorns, so I figured it'd be a decent shot in the dark to see if we could cooperate somehow.
Interestingly, the co-founder of the company - Phillipe - together with his son are actually fans of the channel! When chatting with him, he even ragged on us for our broken sink ;) They were interesting in a one-time sponsorship, I'm surmising half as a way to help support the project.
Phillipe and his wife Ethné were... crazy knowledgeable about spices. It was honestly slightly intimidating talking to them - me and Steph are basically hobbyists at the end of the day, and the two of them have like an encyclopedic knowledge of spice production. They travel constantly, importing spices from different corners of the globe. Really interesting people.
If we were going to be putting our name behind their products though, we decided that it'd be important to actually try out some of their spices. They shot some samples over and... they're really, really good. We tried three of their products, plus they gave a bit of a Montreal Spice Rub as a gift:
1. Red Sichuan Peppercorns. We compared these to two Sichuan peppercorns available at our local market. First we saw how they were compared to the spice shop we really like in our local market - they were significantly more numbing and fragrant. Second, we compared them to a specialty Sichuan supply shop in our market that probably has the best peppercorns in the city (they're periodically out of stock, they really don't like selling to me... all of the Sichuan chefs in the city seem to fight over them lol). Similar numbingness and fragrance, though the peppercorns at the Sichuan shop are a bit more vibrant in color.
2. Green Sichuan Peppercorns. Really excellent. The same quality as the Green Sichuan peppercorns from the Sichuan supply shop.
3. White peppercorn. Theirs are imported from Sumatra, a palpable notch better than the white peppercorns at the spice shop we like.
4. Montreal Spice Rub. This stuff was awesome, me and my buddy Adam (my American chef friend from the Shuizhu Beef and Laziji vids) decided to spring for some steaks to give it a try. It's actually the first time in my life I've ever used the ingredient, so obviously I don't really have much to base it on, but it was great.
So, definitely a go.
I just want to let all of you know though that this isn't going to be a signal of us changing our content or whatever. Also, this isn't going to be like some of those YouTube videos where the host's rambling for like a whole minute about Skillshare or Wix or something - we didn't want that, they didn't want that.
At the beginning of the video, you'll see something along the lines of their logo flashing and me saying "this video was brought to you my Epices du Cru. If you're looking for nice Sichuan peppercorns for this dish or any others, check them out at spicetrekkers.com". Then in the outro we'll have a bit of a ten second blurb.
Anyway, hope you're all ok with that. Excited to share the Chongqing Mala Noodles!
Comments
Stephanie Li and Chris Thomas
What we'd *really* want to do with them is organize spice packs for different dishes - e.g. 'Cantonese lushui spices', 'Roujiamo spices', 'hongshaorou spices', and so forth. But that'd require some work and a little risk on their end, so that idea's shelved. Ended up doing a 12 second spiel at the beginning of the video. I was waffling between doing something super quick or whether to briefly plug their Sichuan peppercorns. I decided on the latter, basically because I wanted to express why I thought an ad might be relevant if it makes any sense? I dunno.
Stephanie Li and Chris Thomas
Cheers, I imagine it'd be a sporadic thing at most... maybe a couple videos a year, max? I mean, this could very well be a one-and-done when it comes to *any* sort of sponsorship we'd be willing to do. With spicetrekkers, it was sort of a rare amalgamation of factors that lead here, honestly I really doubt we'd be able to find a similarly good match again.
Stephanie Li and Chris Thomas
Nah we didn't set up any promo code or anything - neither us nor they are exactly professional internet marketers I guess lol. More than anything, I think Phillipe wanted to support the channel... but yeah, oversight on my part. Of course, the mediocre peppercorns still have their uses! If you're using Sichuan peppercorns for something like... adding to poaching liquid for Mouth-watering chicken, or making ginger-peppercorn water for lamb or dumplings... don't waste the pricy peppercorns.
Jennifer Gauthier
Hey~unlike so many others, your genuine concern for your subscribers is amazing Steph and Chris. We know you can't survive on views and likes alone. So sponsor away! Even netflix and amazon have "adverts" now (quotes because it's their own internal adverts), but they're just training us to accept regular ads, then it'll be exactly like tv. But your ads are done to stay active. To keep turning out quality vids. And I don't think many will be negative towards that. You may lose a couple subs~but they just don't love you both as the rest of us do. Advertise away if it keeps you on air. Jenn 💖
Max Polun
Sounds good to me. I was actually looking for a place to buy some Sichuan peppercorns -- my current ones are pretty mediocre. Are you going to get a code? I want to make sure you get credit for referring me.
Ricky P
Congrats on finding a sponsor! NPR-style intro is great. I honestly wouldn’t mind a longer sponsorship blurb since the sponsor is relevant to the content (vs squarespace). Perhaps a better sponsorship integration would be to use their ingredients in future episodes when the dish requires them.
