After a recent bathroom remodel I went on the search for the "perfect" towel. After trying several brands over the past six months, I can with absolute confidence say there is no such thing as the perfect towel. But, of all the ones I tried, the Calcot bath sheets strike the best balance between pros and cons.Of all the brands I tried, the Pinzon (Amazon house brand) 820 Gram towels and the Restoration Hardware Egyptian cotton towels were the closest runner-ups. Both are outstanding towels, but both suffered from the same problem weight. These are some heavy towels in the bath sheet size! Weight is good when it comes to being a thirsty towel that offers a dense feel. Weight is not good when it comes to drying. On humid days the bath sheets would take more than a day to air dry after one use. Washing them was even more of a problem since they took forever to dry in the dryer. I line dry whenever I can, but unless it was hot and dry out (not all that common in VA), these took forever to dry outdoors as well. Plus, the weight when sopping wet is a real issue.
The Pinzon and the Restoration Hardware towels are excellent in hand towel size you really appreciate the benefit of a dense pile when drying your face. But as a bath sheet, they were both impractical.
The Calcot caught my eye since they are made of US-grown Supima cotton. Basically this means the cotton fibers are long which makes them soft and absorbent. This translates into a lighter-weight towel without much loss of absorbency.
NOTE: Although the cotton is grown in the US, the towels are manufactured in Pakistan.
The Calcot bath sheets are also a bit smaller they are 34 by 68. That's a few inches shorter than other bath sheets. I didn't miss the extra few inches, and the smaller size helps out with both the weight and ease of laundering.
Calcot has three product lines, with the Growers Collection (what I am reviewing) being their premium line. I did not try out their other lines, so can't say how they would perform.
These towels provide the best balance between softness, thickness, density, absorbency and weight. They dry quickly (both air dry and in the dryer) and are nice and large. Very minimal fuzz in fact, hardly any came off in the first wash, and virtually nil in subsequent washes. This is in sharp contrast to the Pinzon, which shed like mad in the first wash, and kept shedding appreciably for several more washes.
Construction quality is decent. Not as nicely stitched on the edges as the Restoration Hardware towels but they are holding up well so far.
The price sealed the deal for me. I bought these directly from Calcot on their website (google Calcot Growers). Their website is pretty basic, and not what you'd call a great example of a storefront. But, the prices are much better (at least when I ordered) than Amazon or anyone else, and they offer the ability to buy either a la carte or as a pre-set bundle. I was able to get two bath sheets in their Growers Collection line for less than the cost of one bath sheet from Restoration Hardware. They shipped the same day as I ordered. They did not, however, respond to an email I sent with a question about the order (not a big problem since I found the answer myself later). So, while they score high for quick shipping and great prices, not so good when it comes to customer assistance.
I can't give any feedback on color fastness for any of the towels I tried since I only bought them in white.
Final tips: make sure you never, ever use fabric softener in the wash or dryer with any cotton towel. It really kills the absorbency. Every so often, add a half cup of vinegar to the wash. Helps keep the towels thirsty and soft. Lastly, wash the towel before using it the first time.
Hope this helps with others wresting with what towels to get.
After spending an afternoon driving around to the various home goods stores, I checked Amazon and found a review that praised these towelsand suggested I buy them direct from Calcot off their web site. I did so, and about five days later they arrived. They looked a bit linty and had a slight odor out of the box, but after a trip through the washer and drier they were odor and lint free, and felt wonderful. You can spend a lot more on towels, but these are nice nice as any I've found around town. They're very absorbent, and thick, but not so thick that they won't dry out. I'm very pleased with my purchase.Ordered these towels from Amazon.com, they were shipped from Calcot in California. Received the towels in 4 days..and I am in Massachusetts!! The towels are of excellent quality and BIG! Unfortunately, we were trying to match a color in the newly applied bath wallpaper and the color just did not work. I e-Mailed Heather at Calcot to return the package, NO problem..she set up a UPS pick-up order, and 6 days later she emailed me that the towels were received and the complete charge had been credited to my credit card account!! THAT'S what I call GREAT customer service. Would highly recommend this company.
Russ Pratt
Webster, MAI usually don't review products but have to concur with some of the other posters here.I purchased these as a gift for my husband and after using them he asked me to give them a trial as he needed a second opinion.He said he wondered if he was imagining it, but the towels had a strange quality that seemed to 'repel the water right back onto your body'.I did use the towel to see what he was talking about.Before they were wet they felt really luxurious and you would suppose that your experience would be excellent.But the towels did, in fact, have a slimy feel to them when you tried to wick water off yourself.Most unpleasant.
Overall I have to say these were an epic fail as a gift.We're going to re-gift them to our dogs as soft pet beds so all is not lost.I reordered these towels because I really liked them when I bought them last year. Muchto my disappointment, these are much flimsier and thinner than the previous ones.When I inquired (thinking I inadvertently might have ordered the wrong type), the company rep explained that their supplier used higher quality raw materials (that exceeded the stated weight) initially, and now the towels are thinner due to higher production costs.I guess if you never saw or felt the other ones it might notbother you ... but these are so much less substantial than theolder bath sheets (even after many washings) it's disappointing. On the plus side, they take much less shelf space, as they are abouthalf as thick, and theymay dry faster. I haven't washed them yet, so I can't comment on the absorption difference. I will update this review once I start using the towels.
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