tiramisu: a review

A friend of a friend contacted me last week about sampling some goodies from the Sharis Berries website in exchange for a review. While browsing through all of the various strawberries covered in chocolate, a different dessert caught my eye and decided to come home with me: a 6" tiramisu cake.

I know. This is a cake made in New York and shipped overnight to Arkansas. But, it's tiramisu. Need I say more?

UPS was supposed to deliver the package on Saturday. See the big orange Saturday sticker?

Saturday came and went. No Tiramisu. Disappointed Dorothy. Disappointed Gabriel.

On Monday, UPS delivered the package. The freezer packs were completely melted, and the cake looked like it had waited through a long layover. It wasn't pretty. But the high temperature over the weekend and through Monday was chilly at best, practically a refrigerator. So, we ate it anyway. It tasted much much much better than it looked.

When I contacted Sharis Berries, they discovered that UPS does not deliver to rural areas on Saturdays. Apparently, our little town is rural. They promptly sent me a replacement cake, and assured me that if I were a paying customer, I would have been given a replacement cake or a full refund.

Cake #2 arrived yesterday afternoon, still frozen, but with a huge hole in the packaging.

When I contacted the company again, they assured me that their products are 100% guaranteed, and if I were a paying customer, I would have received a full refund.

But on the bright side, this cake came with the ingredients listing unlike cake # 1. I was glad to see that there weren't too many crazy preservatives or additives, and we decided the cake was probably still safe to eat despite the broken packaging.

Like the first one, the tiramisu tasted delicious.

I have sampled may versions of tiramisu. While this one is hardly traditional, the layers of cream and mascarpone cheese with just enough booze and coffee to pull it all together was more than edible. Gabriel liked it more than traditional tiramisu.

The only part I didn't care for was the sponge cake layer on the bottom. It was tough and chewy, not at all delicate like the usual espress-soaked ladyfingers. But did I eat it anyway? Every last bite.

I am not the type to mail-order desserts. If I want a treat, I usually make it from scratch myself, and occasionally I'll get something from a local shop. All of that said, there have been times that I have wanted to send something special and edible to loved ones who don't live nearby, and in that case, this could be just the thing.

If you feel inclined to do the same, Sharis Berries is offering my readers a 15% discount off any product on their site with the coupon code: BERRYGOOD.

I probably wouldn't order the tiramisu again, not because it wasn't tasty (it really was delicious), but because this seems like a problematic cake to ship. But they have lots of great options on the Berries and More page.

Thanks, Sharis Berries.