Sneezing customers prove the freshness of the spices and herbs for sale in Seattle's World Spice Merchants.
"It happens all the time. Everyone sneezes in here," said one of the women working behind the counter. She said the sneezes were probably caused one of the pepper blends or maybe the nutmeg they were grinding -- first breaking it up with a hammer and then running it though an electric spice grinder.
World Spice Merchants sells a wide variety of pure spices, spice blends, salts, chiles, and herbs by the ounce, with a one ounce minimum. While Penzeys sells their spices in pre-packaged sizes, this market gives customers more control over how much they are buying. Many of the seasonings are available whole or can be ground when purchased or ground at home when used.
Tourists can take home a taste of the city by ordering their Alderwood Smoked Sea Salt ($1.50 per ounce) which is seasoned for two days with the smoke from Washington State red alderwoods. Another customer recommended the Murray River Flake Salt ($2 per ounce) from Australia. As she said, "It looks like peachy snow."
Unfortunately, the Mole Ole ($2 per ounce) was out of stock yesterday. It is used to give cooks a head start in making the complicated chocolate sauce. The Mole Ole sample smelled like a deep red wine -- round rich whiffs of chocolate and red pepper. This market does runs out of some products from time to time becasue they keep only small quantities of spices on hand to make sure everything is fresh.
World Spice Merchants accepts only cash or check, both in store and online.
Tony Hill, owner of World Spice Merchants, wrote The Contemporary Encyclopedia of Herbs & Spices: Seasonings for a Global Kitchen. The store is located behind the Pike Place Market, home of Market Spice, another well-known Seattle spice and tea store.
[Thanks Seattle Bon Vivant for posting so many Seattle food stop suggestions, including World Spice.]
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Can I just second how fabulous this place is? I've ordered from them online, and having just recently moved to Seattle went in person to restock my spice supply. I can't say enough about their spices, I have loved everything we bought. Our latest new adventure was their Herbal Chai tea, which is definitely worth a try. Spicy and full of flavor, it's lovely!
I am so happy to hear about them! We use a variety of spices, extracts and oils (along with 80 other mix-ins) in our custom cookies, and it is wonderful to hear of places that offer an extended variety of flavors.
Thank you for sharing!!
The Milkman
http://www.fatcookie.com
I don't live anywhere close to Seattle, but I just wanted to chime in and say that I love getting fresh spices from the bulk section of my usual grocery store. It's so much cheaper than buying old spices in jars from the likes of McCormick's. I think I spent all of 10 cents on twenty or so bay leaves, 30 cents on some cumin, 50 on some ancho chile powder, etc... They're always out of saffron, so I imagine you can get that quite cheaply too.
I'm also addicted to using smoked sea salt in dishes.
This cool sounding shop brings to mind the Spice House here in Chicago. If I just pop in to pick up a couple of things, by the time I leave, my clothing is infused with a heady mix of fragrances. Their spices and herbs are fresh and inexpensive and can be bought by the ounce. And many of their employees are students or graduates of the renowned Kendall College culinary school.
As with the Seattle store, you can shop at the Spice House online too:
http://www.thespicehouse.com/
I agree with verily: I love to buy spices in bulk to get just what I need, or a little extra. I only wish I could find someplace in New York as wonderful as a few shops in Montreal, where bulk bins went way beyond oatmeal and paprika to wonderful things like citron, French walnuts, even Madagascar vanilla beans.