Bee’s Wrap Reusable Plastic Wrap Alternative

As soon as I arrived at the NYC Green Festival in April, I made a beeline (pun intended) for the Bee’s Wrap booth. I found out about these nifty organic cotton, wax coated cloths the day before I attended the show through Instagram and was very excited to check them out in person.

These bees wax coated cloths are bendable and pliable to easily wrap around your leftover foods. They are a reusable alternative to plastic wrap, foil and waxed paper. With one specifically awesome benefit, these wraps will “adhere” to the rim of jars, bowls, trays and pretty much any container with a rim. In doing so, it can create a water-tight seal to prevent air from drying out your foods and allowing moisture to stay sealed in.

I am not used to the smell of real bees wax, so when I opened the package it was rather overwhelming. So much so that the thought of covering my food with that smell made me not want to use the wrap, despite being told the smell doesn’t transfer to food. It was off-putting from the beginning. That isn’t to say that those who are used to that smell wouldn’t love it. My friend was over my house when I opened the package and mentioned how he enjoyed the smell as he grew up with true bees wax candles.

After a long 2 months while the smell does dissipate and is much less “in your face” which made it easier to use. It wasn’t so great with keeping bread fresh, at least not how I expected – to make it super soft, it did not. Though I loved it for wrapping a cut tomato and onion in an open container, which kept it from drying out. I was happy that I purchased the $6 medium size wrap since I felt it difficult to make continual use of the wrap, which now just sits in my pantry awaiting daily use. The small size was just as versatile as the sandwich wrap – you could even add your own button and string later.

I was excited to see if the wrap would help extend the life of my block cheddar cheese, as the cheese I purchase at Trader Joe’s has no preservatives and tends to mold sooner than traditional cheeses. I could never use the cheese fast enough before I had to throw out a large chunk of it do to mold.

I wrapped the cheese for about a week in the Bee’s Wrap and found it wonderful at keeping the cheese from drying out. I may have used up the cheese faster than normal but also because of the Bee’s Wrap there was no mold to be found at all. It was about two weeks since I purchase and opened the cheese and that certainly is a good sign to not have to waste food do to mold. It is really wonderful to have a specific use for my Bee’s Wrap, I will certainly be using it to wrap my block cheeses from now on. Note: I tested this again and had the cheese in my fridge for about three weeks (still well before the sell by date on the package). This time the cheese did have a small white patch of what seemed to be the beginning of mold. But this wrap isn’t expected to keep out mold, it is expected to keep the cheese from drying out and that it did a good job of. I do want to note that I also had the Bee’s Wrap cheese also sealed in a ziptop plastic bag, for added freshness.

I would certainly recommend this product, but make sure you air it out the wax smell first!