‘Mater Rater

After reviewing quite a few products (mostly potato chips! Yum!), we decided that maybe a more subjective way of evaluating them was needed to better distinguish them. So we came up with the ‘Mater Rater. We evaluate products based on the following categories and criteria, rating from 1 (boo!) to 5 (yah!):

Texture: The overall feel. Is it too oily? Too dry? Too crunchy? Not crunchy enough?
Flavor: Too spicy? Not spicy enough? Rich? Bland?
Quality: Does each bite produce the same result?
Appearance: Does the packaging catch our eye? Does the product look appealing?
Overall: An average of the scores.

Now, of course, everyone’s opinion can be different, so you have to take what we think are pluses and minuses with a grain of salt. But maybe this approach will help you decide if you want to run out and buy a product or not.

For restaurants and the like, we use a slightly different scale:

Vibe: The overall feel and appearance of the place.
Service: Slow? Fast? Friendly?
Food: Flavor and appearance.
Value: Was the food worth the price?
Overall: An average of the scores.

For cookbooks we adopted a slightly different criteria:

Vibe: The overall feel (including anecdotes) and appearance of the book.
Pics: Quality and quantity of the pictures.
Detail: Just how detailed are the recipe steps?
Value: Was the book worth the price?
Overall: An average of the scores.

Oh, and we never accept freebies. We buy everything we evaluate on our own. So, there aren’t any biases in our ratings beyond our own personal biases (like… I really, really love kettle fried chips!)