Mrs Elswood Kimchi Review — Is It Good? (2026)
This Mrs Elswood kimchi review breaks down the taste, real ingredients, the non-traditional soy-and-wheat-based recipe, a marketing-vs-label discrepancy we found, and honest customer ratings — plus where to buy Classic and Turmeric, including on Amazon UK.
Mrs Elswood Kimchi Review — Quick Verdict
This Mrs Elswood kimchi review lands somewhere in the middle. It holds a modest 3.5 out of 5 star rating from 8 reviews on Waitrose’s own site — a genuinely small sample, worth knowing before you rely on it. Made by the UK’s long-established #1 pickle brand (part of Empire Bespoke Foods), its Classic Kimchi takes a non-traditional approach, substituting soy sauce and wheat flour for the fish sauce and rice paste found in a traditional recipe — meaning it contains gluten, unlike most other UK kimchi brands. Sold at Waitrose for around £3.75 per 300g jar, and also available on Amazon UK — Classic as a 6-jar multipack, Turmeric as a single jar.
Who Makes Mrs Elswood Kimchi?
A long-established UK preserving brand, genuinely new to kimchi specifically.
Mrs Elswood is the UK’s number one pickle brand, part of the Empire Bespoke Foods portfolio, with 75 years of experience preserving vegetables — a background in gherkins and pickled cucumbers rather than Korean fermentation specifically. Its first-ever kimchi range launched in April 2024, described by the brand as inspired by “past travels across Korea,” per a quote from Jonathan Hehir, Senior Product Manager at Mrs Elswood, in the brand’s own launch materials.
It’s worth being clear-eyed about this: Mrs Elswood’s core expertise is in pickling (typically vinegar-based preservation), not the lactic-acid fermentation process traditional kimchi relies on, even though the brand describes its kimchi range as fermented rather than pickled. That’s not disqualifying — plenty of well-regarded brands move into new categories successfully — but it’s useful context for why the recipe departs from a traditional approach in the ways covered below.
Real Ingredients — And a Marketing Discrepancy
Pulled directly from the current Waitrose, Ocado, and mrselswood.com ingredient panels, which all matched each other — but not the brand’s own launch press release.
| Ingredient | Role |
|---|---|
| Chinese leaf cabbage | Base vegetable |
| White radish | Traditional secondary vegetable |
| Carrot | Sweetness and colour |
| Garlic | Aromatic |
| Gochugaru red chilli pepper flakes | Heat and colour — genuinely Korean chilli, not a generic substitute |
| Sugar | Balance |
| Sea salt | Fermentation and seasoning |
| Soy sauce | Umami — non-traditional substitute for fish sauce |
| Wheat flour | Thickener — introduces gluten |
| Ginger | Aromatic |
Taste & Ratings
A genuinely sourced customer rating, presented honestly with its real sample size.
Mrs Elswood’s own description promises “an explosion of intense spiciness, lip-smacking tang and a crunchy texture” — a bold claim. The actual customer data we found is more modest: 3.5 out of 5 stars from 8 reviews on Waitrose’s own product page. That’s a genuinely small sample size — worth knowing before you weight it heavily either way, since a handful of reviews can swing significantly with just one or two additional ratings.
The soy-sauce-and-wheat-flour approach means the flavour profile reads differently from a fish-sauce-based traditional kimchi — expect a savoury, umami-forward tang closer to a spiced pickled vegetable than the funkier, more complex fermented-seafood depth of a traditional recipe. That’s not necessarily worse, just genuinely different, and worth knowing if you’re comparing it directly against a more traditional UK brand.
The Turmeric & Beetroot Variants
Mrs Elswood didn’t launch with a single flavour — the range arrived with three at once.
The Turmeric Kimchi variant genuinely differs in formulation from Classic: Chinese leaf cabbage, white radish, leek, onion, garlic, sugar, sea salt, rice flour (rather than wheat flour), miso (soybeans), turmeric, ginger, and coriander. Notably, it swaps out soy sauce for miso and uses rice flour instead of wheat flour — meaning it may be a better fit than Classic for anyone avoiding wheat specifically, though it still contains soy via the miso. A Beetroot variant also launched alongside these two, though we found less detailed ingredient information for it as of this update.
Gluten & Allergens
This is genuinely one of the most important practical facts in this review.
Mrs Elswood Classic Kimchi’s current allergen declaration lists “Contains Wheat” and “Contains Soya” directly, plus “May Contain Fish” and “May Contain Mustard” as cross-contact warnings, since it’s produced in a facility that also handles fish and mustard. That wheat content is a genuine point of difference — most other UK kimchi brands we’ve reviewed in this cluster don’t use wheat flour at all, making them naturally gluten-free on ingredients. If you’re avoiding gluten, Mrs Elswood Classic is not a safe choice, and you’d want to check the Turmeric variant’s rice-flour-based recipe more carefully, or choose a different brand entirely.
Manufactured for Empire Bespoke Foods Ltd, with production addresses in Middlesex, UK and Cork, Ireland, per the current packaging.
Where to Buy Mrs Elswood Kimchi & Price
| Retailer | Notes |
|---|---|
| Waitrose | ~£3.75 for a single 300g jar (roughly £12.50/kg) — watch for promo pricing, seen as low as £3.15 |
| Ocado | Confirmed listing, same ingredient panel, single 300g jar |
| Amazon UK — Classic | Sold only as a 6 x 300g multipack — Check Price on Amazon UK → |
| Amazon UK — Turmeric | Single 300g jar, currently ~£4.49 (10% off £4.99 list) — Check Price on Amazon UK → |
| mrselswood.com | Full range including Turmeric variant |
On a per-gram basis, Mrs Elswood sits meaningfully above Sun Hee’s roughly £2.00-£2.50 for a comparable pack, though below some of the more premium UK brands. See our full where to buy kimchi in the UK guide for the complete retailer comparison.
Related Guides
Mrs Elswood Kimchi Review — FAQ
Reasonably, with caveats. It holds a modest 3.5 out of 5 star rating from 8 reviews on Waitrose’s own site, and it’s a genuinely different, non-traditional take on kimchi using soy sauce and wheat flour rather than fish sauce and rice paste. It’s a reasonable easy entry point for someone new to kimchi, but it isn’t the pick for anyone wanting an authentic traditional recipe, and it contains gluten unlike several other UK brands.
Mrs Elswood is the UK’s long-established number one pickle brand, part of Empire Bespoke Foods Ltd, with 75 years of vegetable-preserving experience. Its first-ever kimchi range — Classic, Turmeric, and Beetroot — launched in April 2024.
The Classic variant: Chinese leaf cabbage, white radish, carrot, garlic, gochugaru red chilli pepper flakes, sugar, sea salt, soy sauce, wheat flour, and ginger. No fish sauce or shrimp paste is listed. It carries “Contains Wheat,” “Contains Soya,” and “May Contain Fish/Mustard” allergen warnings.
The Classic variant’s ingredient list contains no animal-derived ingredients, so it is vegan-friendly on ingredients, though it’s produced in a facility that also handles fish — check the current label if you have a serious allergy.
Yes — the Classic variant lists wheat flour and carries a “Contains Wheat” allergen declaration, meaning it is not suitable for anyone avoiding gluten. This differs from several other UK kimchi brands, most of which don’t use wheat flour.
Not in the traditional sense. Classic Korean kimchi typically uses fish sauce or shrimp paste and rice paste — Mrs Elswood’s Classic Kimchi substitutes soy sauce and wheat flour instead, giving a genuinely different flavour and texture profile.
Around £3.75 for a single 300g jar at Waitrose (roughly £12.50 per kg), though promotional pricing has been seen slightly lower. A 6-jar multipack of Classic is also sold on Amazon UK, and Turmeric is available there as a single 300g jar for around £4.49.
Classic Kimchi holds 3.5 out of 5 stars from 8 reviews on Waitrose’s own site at time of writing — a genuinely small sample size. The Turmeric variant has a separate 4.3 out of 5 rating from 4 reviews on its own Amazon UK listing.
Yes — alongside Classic, the April 2024 launch introduced Turmeric Kimchi (rice flour instead of wheat flour, no soy sauce, plus leek, onion, miso, turmeric, and coriander) and a Beetroot variant.
Yes. Empire Bespoke Foods’ own launch press release describes the Classic variant as featuring “70% Napa cabbage” with kohlrabi among its vegetables, but the actual ingredient panel lists Chinese leaf cabbage, white radish, and carrot — no kohlrabi appears. We’re presenting both sources rather than guessing which is accurate; always check your specific jar’s label.
Mrs Elswood is noticeably more expensive — around £3.75 for 300g versus Sun Hee’s roughly £2.00-£2.50 for a comparable pack, making Sun Hee the clearer budget option of the two.
Yes. Classic Kimchi is sold on Amazon UK, but only as a 6 x 300g multipack, not a single jar — if you just want to try it, Waitrose or Ocado sell a single 300g jar. The Turmeric variant is available on Amazon UK as a single 300g jar, currently around £4.49.
