There is nothing more annoying for the average shopper at the grocery store. I don’t cook that often, but I love knowing that I’ve got a full spice rack. I can spend $1.00 for red peppers or I can spend $5.00. Are more expensive spices worth it?
Don’t know about always, but I can tell you that some spices are well worth the money. Vietnamese cinnamon from Penzey’s is about the closest thing to heaven I’ve found. When compared to grocery-store cinnamon, well, there is just no comparison. One sniff and you’ll know.
(FYI) Also, while having a full spice rack may look good, if you’re not using them you should replace them every year or so anyway.
Not always, no. I’d say the biggest difference in quality is going to be turnover - corner store cinnamon has probably been there for months, if not years, and that’s time for it to go stale. Grocery stores are probably better, but ideally you want somewhere with a focus on spices.
Probably an even bigger difference is buying whole vs pre-ground spices, especially if you don’t cook often.
dalej42, I see you live in Phoenix. There is a Penzey’s Spices store in your city, at 10810 N. Tatum Boulevard. Their hours are Mon.-Sat.: 10:00AM - 6:00PM and Sun.: 11:00AM - 5:00PM.
Penzey’s started as a mail-order company, but they’ve been opening retail stores around the country for the past few years. I have been very happy with the spices I’ve ordered from them. Everything I’ve gotten from them has been very fresh and flavorful. You won’t have to pay shipping costs if you buy from this local store.
Here is the Penzey’s Web Site.
Oh yeah - as others have pointed out, there’s a huge difference between grocery store spices and higher quality, fresher spices. It’s not at all hard to tell the difference. If you have them side-by-side, it’s obvious for most of them.
I’ll heap on the kudos for Penzey’s. I get just about everything from them, and I don’t even have a local shop, so I have to pay shipping.
Other than Penzey’s, try your local co-op or higher end grocer. A lot of them carry Frontier herbs/spices in bulk, and you can buy just what you’ll use in a month or two. And it’ll cost next to nothing. I don’t like Frontier as much as Penzey’s, but it’s still head and shoulders above grocery store stuff.
And as an aside - Ruby is spot-on about the Vietnamese Cinnamon from Penzey’s. There is nothing like that stuff. It’s like all other cinnamon is cinnamon-scented dust after you have that stuff.
Cheaper spices usually have cheaper packaging- plastic instead of glass.
However, I found if you put them into a glass container (either from the previous more expensive brand or from a "spice rack’ jar), then there is little to no difference, unless they have been on that shelf for a loooooong time.
I find that in my grocery store, there’s no difference in quality between Goya, Badilla, and Rico brand spices (say, $1.99/jar, sometimes less) and McCormick ($5/jar or more). McCormick does have nicer bottles, but that’s about it. IME, you can do quite well by shopping in ethnic markets for spices commonly used in that group’s cuisine - they’re likely to be both cheaper and fresher.
The other thing to remember about spices is that they’re simultaneously the most expensive and cheapest thing in the grocery store. Yes, common spices can be tens of dollars per ounce, and that can be intimidating to see on the label… But now think about how much spice you’ll actually use per serving. Even for the expensive stuff, the cost of the spices is almost certainly going to end up being negligible compared to the main ingredients.
I buy one spice at a local grocery store – dried chiles, which I grind up in my spice grinder to make my “friends” suffer a bit, while I savor the taste. I make sausage not infrequently and also use McCormick’s (sp?) fennel seed – expensive, but you don’t need much and it’s adequate. If you need quantity, you need to mail order.
Costco has some great deals on garlic and onion powder, as well as Tellicherry peppercorns. Like, big buttloads of them for only a few bucks. If I were smarter, I’d dehydrate and pulverize my own aromatics, but what’s the point? PITA and it probably wouldn’t taste any better.
Although, I still am going to make carrot powder, pork powder (what’s the Mandarin name? Can’t remember), but I’m too busy to get on that. Pipe dreams, that’s what it is!
If you can, find a way to buy spices in bulk rather than in bottles. It’s so much cheaper it’s absurd. Whole foods has a bulk spice section (although it can sometimes be hidden away) and there might be a specialty spice store in your city that would have the same.
Sometimes - I’d say it’s worth buying some thyme, and some of the mixed ones. I usually use the ‘pasta mix’ for pasta, etc…how sophisticated!
Not necessarily - some brands (like Penzey’s) sell their spices in plastic bags or bottles. The bags let you buy the bottles once and refill, so you don’t have to pay the price of the bottle everytime you need more.
I think Whole Foods uses the Frontier brand of bulk spices, mentioned earlier in the thread. Don’t buy the little filled jars from their baking/spice aisle; the bulk spices are hidden somewhere in their nutritional supplements/beauty products/etc aisles.
I came in to echo this. The best explanation I have seen is When Do Herbs & Spices Give Up the Ghost?
I’m on the loving Penzey’s bandwagon also. The important thing is the freshness of the spices, so I’m believing that Penzey’s has better quality and turnover than the grocery store.
One thing to keep in mind is that Penzeys in particular isn’t all that much more expensive for spices than your average grocery store.
When you factor in the freshness difference, there’s no comparison. Unless you’re using massive quantities (in the pounds) of the spices, or you just can’t afford that extra fifty cents, going to a specialty spice vendor is well worth it.
Now that I’ve said that, it does depend on the spice in question- very assertive and easily dried spices like rosemary, oregano and sage are just about the same anywhere you buy them, but ones like parsley, cinnamon and dill really are better fresh.
Shop around and try. For example, I am actually embarrassed to find I like the grocery store garam masala much better than the Indian store garam masala…this is also because it’s dependent on individual recipe, and the grocery store one is more to my tastes. I buy things like garlic and onion powder from Walmart for $1.00 each - they are just as good and not worth the more expensive kind. Higher class spices, though, i try to buy elsewhere.
Lessee, we buy stuff that we use a lot of (like garlic & onion powder) from the Vietnamese market. It’s insanely cheap there, compared to a regular grocery.
Some stuff we get from the Mexican section of the dollar store. Vanilla, mostly, and some oddball stuff. Again, much cheaper.
Everything else we get in small quantities as needed. I’ve found three stores (one health food, one high-end specialty, one that’s a little of both) that stock spices in bulk. Better yet, their spices are often STILL cheaper than what’s available at the supermarket.
Generally, in the grocery store, I go for the cheap stuff – the expensive stuff has, all too often, been sitting there for ages. However, I buy most of my spices from Penzey’s these days. They are more expensive, but much more potent than anything I get at the grocery. Also, their freeze-dried herbs may not be as good as fresh, but they’re miles away better than anything I get at the grocery, and many herbs are difficult to find fresh.