I am a slightly pickle obsessed person. As in, my dentist was wondering why I had such smooth teeth as a young person in middle school (evidently this isn't normal? *shrug*). We figured out that it was because I had been eating so many vinegar-rich pickles. Pickled olives, pickled cocktail onions, giant dills, pickled jalapenos, kimchi, pickled garlic, pickled daikons, little kosher tiny spicy things, I'll nom it all in a big bowl as a snack. A tradition that's still going on to this day is that every year for Christmas, my parents wrap me up a giant 80 fl oz. Jar of Football-game-sized pickles as a Christmas present. It's the one present I can always guess the contents of.
One of the saddest days growing up was finding out that Sodium Benzoate and Potassium Benzoate (common pickle preservatives) are carcinogens, greatly limiting my selection of pickles I could just pick out and stuff my face with from the supermarket.
This is all to say that when the brightly colored Fickle Pickle seemingly popped up out of nowhere one day, it was very exciting. Maybe I'm not driving on Seguin enough, but it wasn't there, and then *POOF!* a fully furnished, flamboyantly decorated, all the way open, Fickle Pickle appeared.
I found a time I could go by when they were open and finally was able to try their Fickle Pickle. It was good guys! Really real good!
This may be a very short review because they have just one type of pickle in the shop, which surprised me. It is the normal pickle, the same normal pickle with slightly more spice (choose a jar with a red X on the lid), and then bottled juice from the pickles that you can use as a marinade, a basting liquid for brisket or ribs, or a nice kick to add to tuna or potato salads. Ask the associates and they can give you a list of a good 10 more uses.
They're sweet, sour, slightly spicy, and good and crunchy. They're evidently from an old family recipe that the family has been making themselves for 40 years (!) in Boerne. I've decided to call them "crack pickles" because I opened up the jar (spicy version first) and tried them for the very first time and then managed to eat half the jar without realizing it.... in one sitting...with my fingers. I then kept going, but only after I fetched a fork of course, because I'm super civilized. And also couldn't reach them anymore.
I did notice however, after going online and reading their recipe, that they do contain sodium benzoate, which I'm not thrilled about. I am guessing most people won't even bat an eyelash at that though as most pickles in any store contain potassium or sodium benzoate nowadays unless they're labelled "kosher." Martha Stewert evidently didn't! No joke! I just noticed that among the framed pickle accolades behind the table with the pickle shrine (I mean bowl...), there's Martha Stewert! Upon some more reading, I found out that even George W. Bush stopped by to grab a few jars while on the campaign trail. The Fickle Pickle seems to have fans in hiiigh places! I myself am certainly not sad that I managed to finish off both jars that I bought before finding out the ingredients. Haha! They were delicious!
I'll be back again sometime soon to peruse their fun knick knacks and vintage-looking decorations and decor as I didn't have enough time to before and they looked adorable.