Spicing It Up

The highlight of my day was a field trip with my friend Kris to a new store in Rockville – Penzey’s Spice House. She has been using their spices for 30 years now, courtesy of her sister who lives in Chicago.

Penzey’s is a mom and pop business which until recently had 3 retail stores in the midwest and thrived with mail orders. Their first store in this area recently opened in Rockville. At Kris’s suggestion, we decided to go check it out.

The smell upon walking through the front door is that of all the ethnic cuisines put together – pleasant but difficult to sort out. I grabbed a shopping basket and started around, smelling the samples as I went.

I never realized that curry or cinnamon or vanilla from different parts of the world could smell so entirely different. At one point we both started sneezing uncontrollably from too much aroma.

I’m never good in a smorgasbord situation. True to form, my basket was full to the top after I had made the rounds. But the good news is I bought only small quantities of everything, wanting to decide what to buy more of on a return trip. For a whopping $32, I had 10 new spice treats ranging from cinnamon to basil to curry to paprika to “Sunny Paris” and a few more.

Someone once told me that the shelf-life of spices is a mere 6 months. Kris and I both confessed to having cans of old spices. (I don’t think they even come in cans any longer.)

So when I got home, some of the antiques had to go to make room for the new ones. Some people collect coins. Some collect stamps. I collect spices, as you can see below. I will definitely be returning to Penzey’s.