Bill Penzey flips out

I have salt, too - I don’t have any sort of salt restriction but I prefer blends without salt so I can control the salt to MY taste in the food.

I’ve been buying spices from them since they were a one store operation back in the early 90s. As long as they continue to carry their “Baking Spice”, they’ve got me as a customer.

I love visiting their big spice warehouse in Wauwatosa. You think the retail shops smell amazing? Just inhale in their warehouse/shop and ancient buried memories of great-grandma’s cooking rise up to give you a huge hug and a watering mouth.

We were shopping the Spice House in Wauwatosa in the late 1980’s, when we lived a few blocks away. It was a fascinating shop, but I like Penzey’s store layouts and spaciousness better.

And I certainly agree with his politics.

I work downwind from another huge spice factory (Wixon), I think I’ve already inhaled my lifetime quota of spices.

Well, to me warehouse smells are different than the factory smells. I was often in Baltimore’s inner harbor back when McCormick had their big factory there. Depending on what spices they were handling/mixing/grinding on any different day, the odors could be very specific and less than pleasant. In the warehouse, each sector had its own aroma.

So it seems to me and my nose, anyway.

Delighted that we made a Penzey’s order last week.

I’ve been a customer since Hector was a pup, but I knew nothing of Bill. Didn’t even know there was a Bill.

So when I saw “Bill Penzey flips out”, my mind went in the other direction, thinking he was another My Pillow guy.

As I wrestled with the thought of doing my spicing elsewhere, I let out a hyuuge sigh of relief as I realized the reality of the situation.

And yes, spoked paprika. You won’t regret it.

mmm

I got onto the Penzey’s email list and been getting his missives for a while. Pretty sure that A) Penzey’s has such quality products that no matter how far out the owner gets it’s not gonna put much of a crimp into sales on account of B) pretty sure non-racist, non-shitheads are better cooks who’re more willing to spend the money to get a top level product. Considering I have about fifteen big bags of Penzey’s spices in my kitchen right now, including three different varieties of cinnamon I’m pretty sure the worst that could possibly happen from me is to hit the “unsuscribe” button, but I find myself amused by a CEO who doesn’t waffle mouth everything for fear of pissing off a customer.

And the Hungarian half sharp paprika blows the smoked stuff out of the water, it’s just that good.

Republicans don’t like spices anyway.

I like Bill.

Right wing snowflakes can only handle criticism when it’s directed at other people.

“You can call most of us racist, and that’s fine, we can live with that. But if you call all of us racists bacause we support and vote for racists, well that’s just a bit too far!”

My wife is a big Penzeys fan, in part because they have actually been saying the quiet part out loud for a while now (though maybe not quite so loudly as this). One of their company taglines is “Season Liberally.”

So true. And I love how fresh their stock is compared to many supermarket suppliers.

I’ve been on their mailing list, but have spent January systematically unsubscribing to all marketing emails - I’m just tired of them. I unsubscribed to this particular email because of that, not because of the message. I have a store a few blocks away, so they’re my go-to.

Here’s the side label of one of their spice blends, called “Justice,” as an example of their already-established outspoken-ness.

Ooh, ooh, I need some Vulcan Fire Salt. I know that’s The Spice House, but do they still have it???

I guess I’m the only who’s never heard of this company. Are they available in California?

Which one?

https://www.penzeys.com/

They have several stores in California, though it looks like all of their stores are closed to in-person shopping right now, due to the Omicron surge. But, they do a lot of business via mail order, too.

At this point, the only spices I have in my house are Penxay’s.