Adding a Little Bit of Spice to My Life

Contrary to what my husband thinks, I don't have everything in the kitchen. I don't have a lot of space in my kitchen, so I only have what I need. Spices is one of them. I loved buying the spices I use most often in bulk at Whole Foods - it was very economical. Sadly, they don't have them anymore...I've searched the location I originally got it from and others in the tri-state area. Where do I turn to now for trusted spices? Penzeys.


I discovered Penzeys when I was watching America's Test Kitchen. They did a taste test of cinnamon and had recommended that brand due to its quality and most of all its lovely fragrance that's different (but still familiar) than your regular supermarket brands. Penzeys has a small outpost in Grand Central in NYC. Thankfully, there's a store not far from me in Norwalk, CT! I prefer the store much better as you can treat your nose to a nice whiff or two to their endless jars of spice samples. I can spend hours doing that if my husband weren't there.

I did not get their ground cinnamon yet, but I did get a chance to experience the wonderful aroma of it. I was shocked at how fragrant it was! Their price is higher than the supermarket brands, but this is how I rationalize purchasing a higher quality product:

• it's not a huge purchase that you have to make often, so cost is rather negligible
• you may need to use less of their spices in recipes because they're rather potent (for example, they recommend doing so with their cumin because it's very strong...and it is)
• buy the larger size, which costs less per ounce
  
• it makes your ending product taste better, so isn't it worth it?
  

Instead of cinnamon, which I don't need at the moment but hopefully will in the future, I brought home some cumin, coriander, sweet paprika, ginger and thyme. They all smelled soooo good, and that made me very happy. :-)