I had always been rather puzzled by Emma's choice of arrowroot to send to Jane, thinking it a singularly commonplace article on a par with ordinary flour, (not to mention vilely bland and disgusting, but that's a matter of personal taste.)

My reaction to the 'very superior quality' description was to think sarcastically that the so superior Miss Woodhouse would naturally have the most superior food in her stores. In fact, I felt that even though she means to be kind, the gift of arrowroot could be construed as insulting both because of it's ordinariness and because Emma might be thought to be showing off by sending the posh sort. The issues of adulterated food and invalid food had never occurred to me.