Hey, McCormick, if it ain't broke, why "fix" it.

Way back in March, on the day before St. Patrick's Day, I set out to do my annual soda-bread baking thang. I had everything I needed: flour, sugar, eggs, butter, baking soda, baking powder, salt, buttermilk, jumbo seeded raisins I had to procure online, and, of course, caraway seeds. Plenty of caraway seeds. Some Morgan & Bassett, some my old standby: McCormick, with a new-fangled, spruced up black and red cap instead of the just plain red cap I was used to.

I was mixing up my final batch, and still had a few bottles of caraway seeds on hand. And all I needed to complete my final batch was one of the small jars. A jar of McCormick's.

So I took one off of my spice shelf and tried to open it. The cap didn't budge. I tried the other McCormick's shorty that I had. Couldn't move that cap, either. 

I googled and found that the top item on McCormick's FAQ was this:

Why can’t I remove the lid on my bottle?

Sometimes too much adhesive is used when the safety seal is applied, causing the lid to adhere to the bottle. This can sometimes happen when too much heat is applied at the time the cap is applied. This was an isolated issue and adjustments have been made to resolve it.

In the meantime, to remove, carefully wrap a hot, wet paper towel around the lid for 5-10 minutes. The heat from the paper towel should loosen the adhesive and allow you to twist off the cap.

Well, that was some safety seal. I tried the hot, wet paper wrap twice on each bottle. And even tried submerging the caps in a cup of boiling water. I tried to dislodge the adhesive with a handy-dandy lobster pick.  

In the process, I managed to twist my left wrist.

Fortunately, I had a non-McCormick bottle at the ready and was able to make my final batch without having to run out for additional caraway.

I occasionally comment, seldom tweet. But I did feel compelled to take myself to Twitter X and send a little message to McCormick.

Hey @mccormickspices, If I mail you these can someone open them and get them back to me by next Paddy's Day so I can bake my soda bread? The hot water-paper towel trick from your FAQ didn't work.

I got a couple of likes, a comment or two, a retweet. But nothing from McCormick. They don't have much of a Twitter presence, but I thought there'd be some response.  

I didn't have my receipt, but the next time I was at my grocery store, I was able to return the bad bottles and get a refund. (And, by the way, I was talking to my friend Joyce, and she had had the same problem with a jar of McCormick something or other.)

Meanwhile, I'd also tried to leave a message on the McCormick support site. Alas, although there was a BIG box to enter your comment/question into, there was an unspecified teeny-tiny character limit.

So I wrote to their support email address:

Here's a pic of the jars I was unable to open. [See above.]

And here's the full message I wanted to leave. Alas, I ran into an unspecified character limit. 

I recently purchased two jars of your carraway seeds - a necessary ingredient for the Irish soda bread I make each St. Patrick's Day. Unfortunately, I was unable to open either container. I did follow the instructions given in your FAQ - wrapping the jars in a paper towel soaked with hot water (which I did twice), but to no avail. In the frustrating process, I also managed to injure my wrist in the process. Sigh! I was able to return the jars to Roche Bros. in downtown Boston for a refund, but the overall experience of not being able to open the jars was pretty frustrating. While your FAQ indicated that the problem has been rare, I was speaking with a friend in Dallas who had the same experience. Fortunately, her husband – a former college hockey player – was able to get the jar open after a Herculean 10-minute effort. All I can say is that it will be quite a while before I purchase any McCormick product that uses one of the “new and improved” black and red caps.

A eight days later, here came a long but not especially satisfying response, especially given that it included the handy-dandy tip I had found on the FAQ, which I had said I had followed. 

Dear Maureen:

Thank you for taking the time to contact us. We are sorry for your disappointing experience with our Caraway Seed and hope you will accept our apologies.

We are sorry the lid on your recent container of Caraway Seed was unable to be removed. This will sometimes happen to a bottle when too much heat is used at the time the cap is applied. The glue from the safety seal under the lid melts onto the threads of the bottle and 'glues' the lid fast. We appreciate you providing us with this feedback and apologize for your disappointment with our packaging. We are aware of this issue and adjustments have been made to fix this.

In the meantime, we have a helpful tip. To remove, carefully wrap a hot, wet paper towel around the spice bottle cap for 5-10 minutes. The heat from the paper towel should loosen the adhesive and allow you to twist off the cap. We appreciate you bringing this to our attention and have shared your feedback with our Quality Assurance teams for their review.

We would like to get some more information to help begin addressing your concerns:
• What is the product UPC?
• What is the full Best By date on the package (include all letters and numbers)?
• When was this product purchased?
• What is the name of the store where this item was purchased?
• Where is the store located (city and state)?
• When was this item initially opened?
• Was the inner (or outer) security seal intact before you opened it?

We appreciate that you have taken the time to bring your concern to our attention. We continually strive to provide the highest level of quality in all our products. If you have further questions regarding any of our products, we are happy to help. Please feel free to respond to this email or call us at 1-800-632-5847 between the hours of 9:00 am and 7:00 pm, Monday - Friday EST. Your patronage is important to us and we hope to continue bringing our passion for flavor to your meals.

Sincerely,

Melissa
Consumer Affairs Specialist
Ref # 3541457

Having returned the unopenable jars I did not, of course, have the UPC. But I sent back what info I did have. 

A week later, all I had gotten back was a request to rate my transaction with Melissa. I'm sure that, if she's an actual human and not a bot, Melissa is a perfectly nice person. But I was pretty darned meh in terms of providing a rating and feedback.

Even though I'm not interested in acquiring any of those new-fangled-ly capped bottles of McCormick anything, I was figuring that the'd send me some coupons or something for my trouble. To date, nada.

Anyway, in googling around, I did come across a story on CNN touting McCormick's new-fangled caps, which were "giving its iconic red-cap bottles their first makeover in nearly 40 years."

Shoppers will soon see newly designed bottles that feature updated labeling and a new “snap” cap that the company says keeps spices and seasonings fresher compared to its previous design. McCormick’s new sleeker bottles, which have already begun rolling out in the United States, will first contain its most popular herbs and spices, including cinnamon, garlic powder and crushed red pepper.

No mention of my beloved caraway seeds. But lots of yadda-yadda-yadda.

A new manufacturing process that will help "maintain freshness." The addition of a "best buy" date. A supposedly satisfying "snap" sound when you put the cap back on. Bottles made using 50% worth of post-consumer recyclable material. A design "validated" by a lot of consumer research.  An overall "multi-sensorial experience."

Well, most of my multi-sensorial experience was the twisted wrist. But maybe that's just me.  

Perhaps McCormick should have put a little more research into testing to see whether the manufacturing process worked? Or at least asked themself whether it was worth "fixing" something that ain't broken.