NapaStyle? Not so stylish.

Happy post-gluttony. How's the cinch of your waistband treating you today? 

As it isn't the holidays with some good old-fashioned grinchiness, I've already had my share of unfavorable retail service. My woes started with Thanksgiving dinner. No turkey this year, but my sister and I do a fantastic côte du boeuf—a recipe from NYC's Balthazar—if I do say so myself. We finish off the slices of beef with a sprinkle of gourmet sea salt, which gave me a perfect reason to crack open a tin of fleur de sel from NapaStyle that I had received earlier in the year.

As I broke the plastic ring, I knew something was wrong. Lo, this is what I found.

Ew. That black stuff seaping around the rim is either rust or an alien symbiote with Topher Grace's mug trying to creap out of its bourgeois-gourmet prison. 

The top of the lid didn't look any better.

And the inside even worse.  

The salt itself had a faint enough yellowish hue that we entertained the idea of bumping up our iron intake for the meal. Don't worry, we didn't.

I won't bore you with the details of the back-and-forth e-conversation with NapaStyle, but let's just say that the "style of Napa" doesn't include proper packaging of its very expensive products or taking responsibility for something as egregious as this. As I was told by Luana, Kimberly, then "Anonymous" and another "Anonymous," the fault lies inside my very cool, very dry spice cabinet. Merry effin' Christmas to me. 

—Jiyeon Yoo