Where is the best place to buy jarred dried spices of good quality at a decent price?

Cafe Society
1

Spices are so important to making so many dishes tasty.

But, supermarkets charge a huge premium for a small bottle of a given spice.

Is there somewhere to buy decent quality spices (not fake or low quality or been sitting in a warehouse for two years) spices? I do not mind spending money for a good quality product but I do mind giving my local supermarket more money than is warranted for a given spice.

Or, are they all just really expensive? Like some cartel has the market locked up and they will make you pay?

(NOTE: I kinda think I may have asked something like this before but a quick search didn’t find it…sorry if this is a repeat.)

2

Penzey’s.
(Easy to find online, I’m at work, so no link at this time.)

3

In the supermarket Badia is usually the best value.

https://www.penzeys.com/

4

Have you tried Amazon or other online retailers?

Traditionally, spices have been among the most valuable commodities. For instance, saffron

has been traded and used for thousands of years. As of 2018, Iran produced some 88% of the world total for saffron.[7][8] At US$5,000 per kg or higher, saffron has long been the world’s costliest spice by weight.[9][10][11]

You can perhaps save money buy buying larger quantities, but that presumes you will use them up in a reasonable amount of time (e.g., a couple of years) before they lose their potency. This may work for some spices you use a lot of on a regular basis, but probably not all of the ones you’d like to have on hand. That’s where buying the small grocery-store sizes can end up actually being more economical. That small $5 jar of garam masala that you end up tossing out half full after five years may be a better deal than throwing out a larger jar three-quarters full that cost less per unit.

5

Go to any Indian or Middle Eastern grocery. They tend to be in bags there (or sometimes bulk), but they usually have some jarred varieties, too. I have my own spice tins that I fill up as needed. It’s like a quarter of the price or less than McCormick’s. Also, I do second Penzey’s or Spice House.

6

Ethnic grocers.

Amazon has been fine for [harder to find but still commodity] stuff like Ceylon cinnamon.

7

Second the Indian grocery store, although I have trouble using all the spice before it goes stale, especially ones like asafoetida that I use only on rare occasions. Badia isn’t blow-you-away good, but it’s cheap as hell and often good enough. When I’m feeling spendy, there’s a local purveyor, Spicewalla, that’s very good.

8

I’m not a big fan of Whole Paycheck (i.e. Whole Foods) but they do have a section of spices in drawers where you can measure out a tablespoon or whatever amount you want of a given spice so you need not buy a whole bottle. On a per weight basis it is expensive but a lot cheaper than buying a bottle that will mostly go to waste.

Although, while the selection is varied they do not have every thing you can think of so some obscure spice may not be there.

9

On the plus side with saffron, if you store it properly, it can last a number of years. I bought an ounce in 2021 and haven’t noticed any degradation.

10

Asafoetida (hing) doesn’t seem to go bad for me. If it does, how can you tell? :slight_smile:

I still have some from maybe ten years ago and it smells as potent as I remember it. That’s one that I don’t mind letting sit out for awhile. (Sealed in its own zip lock bag on top of whatever packaging it’s in — in my case a plastic jar.)

11
  1. Penzeys
  2. The end cap or side section at your local megamart. Mine has the usual racks of McCormick spices (ok in a pinch, but generally overpriced), but next to those is a full section of El Guapo spices/herbs in cellophane bags. Cheaper, fresher and all-around better. Use them to refill your Penzeys jars.
12

Exactly what I was going to say. Indian groceries have an amazing variety of very reasonably priced spices. Not sure if the jarred part is all that important to the OP, but I buy the largish bags of spices and double-bag them in heavy-duty ziplock baggies, or transfer into some other container, once they’re opened.

Invest in a spice grinder and buy only whole spices when at all possible, to grind when needed. Whole spices keep a lot longer than pre-ground.

13

See if you can find a locally owned natural food store. I don’t often buy the overpriced food but they usually sell excellent quality spices and dried herbs and other baking supplies at surprisingly good prices. They sell in bulk, so you can buy as much or as little as you need. I used to buy a six-month supply at most because quality declines over time. Sadly, my favorite such store burned to the ground 15 years ago, and the alternatives are a lot less convenient.

14

There’s usually a rack of bagged spices in the supermarket that seemed aimed at the Hispanic/Mexican-American market. Googling, one brand is El Guapo, though it’s apparently a subsidiary of McCormick.

15

Also, around here, there’s a brand called Spice It! that comes in plastic jars and is usually about $2 for a container. Sometimes $1. Looks like this:

Around here, Pete’s Market has them, as well as some other groceries (like Cermak Produce). Their basic spices are fine; I just would never use their paprika, but I am very particular about paprika. They also have blends, and they also sell straight-up MSG as “MSG” for a quarter of the price of the equivalent amount of Accent, but not every grocery store that stocks Spice It! spices has the MSG.

16

You can freeze spices, too. I always have a stand-alone freezer, so I buy in bulk, keep most of my spices in the freezer, and only have small amounts of the stuff I use constantly out in my kitchen. The bags that larger quantities of Penzey’s come in are suitable for freezing - that’s what they say, anyway, and I have never had a problem.

Once in the 1980s, for some strange reason saffron was on sale at a local Indian market. We bought 8 ounces for $50. That’s A LOT of saffron. I kept it in the freezer and it was literally 20 years (and moves all over the world) before I decided it was no longer potent enough to keep (and by then I was down to about a half teaspoon anyway). It was still recognizably saffron-smelling, but I’d bought a fresh supply from Penzey’s and the latter was definitely superior, so I regretfully threw out the old stuff. But 20 years is pretty damn good (plus it wasn’t frozen nonstop, as on several occasions it survived several months in shipping containers during our epic moves from continent to continent).

17

Penzey’s.

Bonus: they hate MAGA, and aren’t quiet about it, so the more business they get, the better.

18

Ok. I gotta know what you use that for in cooking.

My ol Granny kept it. She would hang a tiny bag of it around her neck. She thought it would keep her from getting sick.

It worked because it stunk so bad no one came near her.

19

Another vote for Penzey’s. Sign up for their emails, they frequently offer good specials, sample packets, etc., and $50 gift cards for $35. In fact, that gift card offer is on right now, ends today.

20

I think this will depend very much on where you live?
In a large city there will probably be some specialist groceries carrying things that might not be common in supermarkets.

I haven’t looked in to online sources since most of what I cook normally requires only the dozen or so fairly available spices.

Oh, but I must vent about one thing. I see a lot of dishes advertised as ‘paella’. Which are usually more like a risotto. It’s NOT paella unless the main spice is saffron. Sacrilage!

Actually there’s nothing at all wrong with a good risotto… just don’t confuse it with a genuine paella…