Where our spices actually come from
Origin, grower relationship, harvest window and testing regime for every category we buy. If we can't tell you where it came from, we don't sell it.
One lot, one origin, one harvest — written on the jar
Most spice on an American shelf is blended stock: several origins, several harvests, pooled by a broker to hit a price. It is legal, it is cheap, and it is why so much ground spice tastes like dust.
We buy at the lot level instead. That means we sometimes run out of turmeric in March and cannot backfill it, and it means our prices move with the harvest. It also means we can tell you, for any jar in your cupboard, which region and which season it came from.
Roughly 70% of our volume comes through the same eight suppliers we have bought from for five years or more. Two are cooperatives, three are family estates, three are specialist importers who let us contract named lots.
Our four buying rules
1. Never buy a spice we haven’t smelled and ground first.
2. Never buy an unnamed origin, whatever the discount.
3. Pay a deposit at contract, balance within 14 days of shipment.
4. Reject the whole lot if the sample and the delivery don’t match — no renegotiating downward.
Testing on every incoming lot
Salmonella and E. coli by an ISO 17025 accredited US laboratory. Lead and cadmium by ICP-MS on all root and bark spices. Adulterant screening for turmeric, paprika, saffron and oregano — the four categories where fraud is most common. Moisture and volatile-oil checks in house on arrival.
Seven regions we buy from every year
Kerala & Malabar, India
Black pepper and Alleppey turmeric through a 400-member growers’ cooperative. Pepper harvested December–February; we contract in January and receive in April.
Matale, Sri Lanka
True Ceylon cinnamon, hand-peeled and rolled into quills by a family operation we have bought from since 2016.
La Vera, Spain
Smoked pimentón dried over oak in traditional two-storey smokehouses. Protected designation of origin, single co-op.
Gaziantep & Şanlıurfa, Türkiye
Urfa and Aleppo-style chile, sumac. Sun-dried, oil-cured, bought each autumn against the current crop.
Peloponnese, Greece
Wild-gathered mountain oregano, tested for volatile-oil content before purchase — we reject anything under 3%.
Grenada & the Caribbean
Whole nutmeg and mace from a grower association rebuilding after two hurricane seasons.
North America
Mustard seed from Saskatchewan, dill and celery seed from the Midwest, and garlic and onion from California processors.
Khorasan, Iran (via EU)
Sargol saffron bought through a licensed European importer with full documentation and US customs clearance.
Tuscany, Italy
Wild fennel pollen, hand-collected in tiny quantities each July. Our smallest and most expensive line by weight.
Paying on time is not a marketing programme
We are too small to run a certification scheme, and we won’t claim one we haven’t earned. What we can do is pay quickly, contract early enough that a grower can plan, and keep buying from the same people in a bad season as well as a good one. In 2022 our Greek oregano supplier lost most of the crop to a dry spring; we took the smaller volume at the agreed price rather than shopping the difference elsewhere.
Where a supplier holds organic, Fair Trade or PDO certification we list it on the product sheet with the certificate number. Where they don’t, we say so.
Buying for a kitchen or a shop?
We’ll send samples of any three spices before you commit to a case. Tell us what you’re comparing against.
Request samples