Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Introducing... Spicemongers!

Well, Hallelujah! After many months of planning and hard work and delay, it's finally here!

It started off as a half-joke in the kitchen of my friend and business partner, Lo-- we'd just made up a batch of our own Za'atar, as well as Zhug, and were comparing them to other, well-known brands that we (up until that point) thought were pretty good. But our two blends were just so much better, and we hadn't even spent long periods of time refining them; we just created them in one evening while hanging out with friends. And since we already had a few other spice blends worked up- we've both got our own version of Ras el Hanout, and I've had a Jalapeno-Lime spice blend for years- he remarked that we should just start our own damn spice company! And so here we are, several months later, just opening our doors-

Spicemongers

We don't have a huge variety to start with, but we couldn't be more proud of what we do have. My Ras es Hanout has long been a favorite of both of us (as well as our friends) and is pretty much made for the Moroccan Chicken Sandwich. Chermoula is something relatively new to us, yet our dried version (which is also the only dried version we know of) is top-notch; actually better than the fresh versions we've tried so far! And for chile-heads, Blaze of Glory is something I'm especially proud of. I've been working off and on to create this exact flavor for about 10 years now, and I finally got it. It's designed specifically to be used on home-fried tortilla chips and combines a great flavor with a slow burning heat. We don't have the Hint of Lime snack seasoning at the moment, mainly because we had to change suppliers for some of the ingredients used, and so have to start over with the testing process to make sure the flavor is exactly what we're going for.

So, we're starting off small, but we've got big plans and ideas, and nowhere to go but up.