Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

You have to fall outside of two standard deviations of normal human behavior to get this excited about a kitchen towel, but I must say, these are fantastic. I purchased these from Amazon for my mother, who has the strange but imminently frugal and practical habit of using cut-up t-shirts as kitchen dishrags. These were the highest rated towels; thus, these were the ones I bought for my mother. 1) The company was awesome. They pinged me with nice (not intrusive) emails making sure the order arrived properly and that we were satisfied with the product. 2) The towels out of the box were gorgeous. My mom wanted to use them for placemats, they were so pretty. Since she already has beautiful placemats, and my goal was to eliminate all t-shirtage in her kitchen, we were able to come to agreement and she consented to use them as intended. 3) Used as intended, these towels are...well, words fail me except to say, these towels are perfect. I thought they were great out of the box; they are even more wonderful after a washing. And better after 2 washings. Marvelous after 3 washings. I suppose they will attain Nirvana at some point in a future rinse cycle. 4) They are smaller than I am accustomed to for a dish towel. This turns out to be a huge advantage. We have used these towels as dishcloths, drying towels, dinner napkins, all-purpose cleaning towels, and - yes - placemats. I now think of them as reusable and "green" paper towels. They are the perfect size for all types of kitchen duties. 5) I'm so impressed with these towels that I am here on amazon.com to order a bunch for myself. Quality is very high. Fabric is top notch. Stitching is heavy duty. Towels are pretty. Towels improve upon washing. They are completely lint-free while also being impossibly absorbent. Five stars. ***Update 18 months later*** These are still my favorite kitchen towels. I use them for everything - as potholders, dishrags, tea towels, for drying, wiping down the kitchen, even occasionally mopping the floor. I bleach them and never use fabric softener, which keeps them reasonably white (all my towels are stained because I use them aggressively) and absorbent. They have held up very well under intense daily use and in fact absorbency has improved. I keep a basket of about 30 assorted dishtowels in my kitchen because I use cloth towels constantly, like other people might use paper towels. The basket contains a few cotton terry towels, a few linen towels, a lot of flat cotton towels, and these herringbone weave towels. With all my toweling options, I have developed distinct preferences for which towels work best for the way I work in my kitchen, and these remain my very favorite go-to kitchen towels. I was surprised to see all the negative reviews, but I guess we each have our own opinion about what a good dishtowel is. For me, I still love these because after 1.5 years of heavy-duty use, they still wipe wine glasses spotless with no lint; they are the best of my towels for wiping down the countertops and shining up the stainless steel; the size lends itself well to a wide variety of kitchen tasks; the fabric weight is such that the towels wring out well and dry quickly, yet because of the fabric weave they absorb water faster and cleaner than my bigger, heavier-weight towels. And because they came in a pack of 12, I use them profligately. These towels are the workhorse of my kitchen. I think those who are more accustomed to a traditional terry or large flat cotton towel, and who rely on paper towels for other kitchen tasks, may not be as enthralled with these towels as I am. But if you want a dozen true working towels that really work well, and that will partner with you in the kitchen for years to come, I still recommend these. I have since bought some for my aunt and my two children, all of whom are serious home cooks and all of whom love these towels. Still five stars!