This post has been a long time coming.
Last Christmas, Brian’s brother and sister-in-law bought me a gift certificate to The Spice House. It was a great gift, but I am not good at making decisions. So many things to choose from! I knew I wanted to get items that weren’t readily available at my grocery store at the co-op in Williamstown, but what? Coupled with the million other things I’m supposed to be doing on any given day, I kept putting off placing an order.
When we were together with the rest of the family in Jersey City at the end of June, Brian’s brother asked me if I’d used my gift certificate yet. I had to confess that no, I hadn’t. I actually had a shopping cart with several items in it, but my indecision was keeping me from pulling the trigger. I felt pretty guilty for not redeemed their lovely gift however, so I placed my order not long after we arrived home.
My first order from The Spice House included Madagascar Vanilla Beans, Grains of Paradise. Za’atar, Sweet Yellow Curry Powder, Mexican Oregano and Hot Yellow Curry Powder. I was really happy with how quickly the order arrived. Although the price for shipping seemed a bit high (this order was $11.11), the spices were packaged beautifully and arrived in perfect condition.
As you can see, I bought some of the products in glass bottles and others as “refills”. It was significantly less expensive to buy products without the containers and the plastic bags are resealable. Also, I have enough random containers that I could use if I felt so inclined. It’s nice that The Spice House has both size and packaging options on most products.
One of the reasons I waited so long to write this post was because I wanted to be able to write an informed review of all the items I bought. Unfortunately, I still have some testing to go. I bought the vanilla beans with ice cream in mind, but I haven’t used them yet. Clearly, I need more ice cream in my life. Similarly, the Grains of Paradise haven’t been touched. (Writing this post is really making me feel like a slacker). In the good news department, the hot curry is great. I used it in the Curried Vegetable and Chickpea Stew earlier this week and it added just the right amount of heat; definitely more than the generic curry I last purchased. I’ve used the sweet curry in a few dishes as well and it’s equally satisfying. I also made flatbread and sprinkled them with the Za’atar, which was pretty awesome. Exploring more Za’atar uses is definitely on my to do list. I’ve added the Mexican oregano to the past couple month’s tacos, quesadillas and burritos. The flavor is a bit stronger and different than the oregano I’ve bought before and makes me feel like I’ve upped my Mexican food game.
I was really pleased with everything involving my first Spice Order (except the part where it took me 6 months to actually place it). The speed, packaging and flavor are all excellent and the pricing seems to be reasonable; it’s exciting to have a source for hard to find products like Grains of Paradise. I’m looking forward to placing another order in the future.
This is NOT a sponsored post. I have no affiliation with The Spice House.
