Lekue Herbstick

The Herbstick from Lekue is an odd little thing. It's like a silicone Popsicle mold for herbs. The idea is that you fill it with herbs, add olive oil so the herbs are covered, put the cap on, and freeze it. Then, when you want to use those herbs, you either slice off a disk of herbs, or you grate what you need.

It sounds a little odd, but ... I really like it. I mean, I know that I can freeze herbs in ice cube trays, but what if I only need a little bit? Have you ever tried to shave or slice an herb ice cube, so you can use a little bit of it? Not so fun.

The Herbstick lets you hang onto that silicone part while you cut or grate the herbs, so you're not trying to hang onto a slippery, freezing cold, partly melting, oily odd-shaped thing.

Of course, if you always use a whole ice cube worth of herbs, then you're good to go. No need for portioning or grating. But so far I've grated frozen herbs onto pasta and scrambled eggs, and into a sauce I was making. It was nice to be able to do that, then just put the cover on, and toss it back into the freezer.

Since I only have one Herbstick, I filled it up with a mix of herbs from my little wheelbarrow herb garden, but I could see the sense in having a whole array of these, each filled with a different herb. Then, label each one with a piece of freezer tape and a marker.

Maybe one filled with hot peppers. I mean, why not? It would make it really easy to grate just a small amount of those ghost peppers into a dish, right?

I was kind of surprised how much I could squish into the Herbstick. I grabbed a couple hand fulls of oregano, basil, chives, and parsley, chopped them, mixed them, put them into the Herbstick, pushed them down a little, and then realized I had barely filled it halfway.

Leaves are fluffy. I didn't need them to be fluffy. I could pack them in much more tightly, and that's what I did. So although this is pretty small, it holds a decent amount of herbs.

Who's it for: People who want to freeze fresh herbs in small quantities.

Pros: If you live where winter happens, this could be very handy. The covered container is nice, and it's easy to push the herbs up for slicing or grating.

Cons: If you live where herbs grow outdoors all year long, you probably don't need this. Also, it's a tad pricey for one container. But ... around here fresh herbs are pricey in winter, so if it saves me from buying them - or from throwing out excess - it would pay for itself pretty quickly.

Wishes: I would love it if these came in a variety of colors for easy color-coding. I could see keeping savory herbs in green, hot peppers in red ... or whatever makes sense.

Source: I received this from the manufacturer for review.