A Brief History Of The Spice Trade And 9 Direct To Consumer Spice Companies

By far the buzziest food trend of the past two decades has been farm to table. Restaurant chefs and home cooks alike have placed a greater emphasis on where their food comes from. People want to know exactly what they’re eating.

They want to know the diet of their grass fed beef, the labor that toiled over their coffee and chocolate, the name of the farmers who deliver the peppers to market every Saturday. All of this becomes important information, a social responsibility, a hallmark of their health and wellness. Preservatives are out. Ugly produce is in.

OK, maybe we know about the chicken that laid our eggs and the pig that became our bacon but did you ever think about the bottles in your spice rack the same way? The tiny pepper flakes that you sprinkle on your eggs and the rub that is all over your pork, where did they come from?

There’s beauty in a transparent food system and that hasn’t happened with spices.

But that’s all starting to change….and fast. A number of direct-trade, single-origin spice companies have emerged across the country over the past few years prioritizing flavor and equity over profits. These companies are travelling to spice farms throughout the world finding ambitious farmers growing a superior product and paying them as much as 10X more than the commodity market. They’re creating a fitting extension of farm to table.

HISTORY OF THE SPICE TRADE

The exchange of spices from Asia and India into Europe had flourished since Roman times and paved the way for important trade routes, but da Gama’s arrival in India marked the start of European powers’ mission to gain a direct foothold in the lucrative spice trade. This ultimately led to conquests and colonization.

The world’s major powers converged on areas that grew spices, where they struggled (often violently) over harvests, trade routes, and taxing authority. The people who lived in spice growing areas experienced exploitation and even genocide. For instance, in 1621, the Dutch East India Trading Company forced its virtual monopoly on the Indonesia spice trade by killing or deporting almost the entire native population of the Banda Islands and seizing their nutmeg.

The passion for spices spurred the beginning of the European colonial enterprise, a thrust that remade the demography, politics, culture, and economy of the world. And that’s how, from this problematic past, the global spice industry came to be worth over 20 billion dollars today.

The spice trade has changed since the imperialist days of Dutch ships crossing the globe, though it’s not as bloody anymore.

Brutality and inequality in the spice trade are still very prevalent. The spices you’re buying from the supermarket aren’t from one farm or even one region. Most likely these spices are the result of the work of hundreds, even thousands, of farmers from around the globe. Big manufacturers will collect and consolidate spices from many small farms and export a spice mixture to big countries in the west. Once imported there’s an additional, complicated process. A big importer sells to big distributors (or several) from which they will either repackage or break down the spices to sell to small distributors.

Spices can take up to three years to just get into a supermarket. And every time they change hands prices go up and quality goes down. Good and bad quality spices get mixed together and there’s a lot of opportunity for adulteration, which is frequently found in supermarket spices.

The origins of venture capital can be traced to the spice trade. Coalitions of Dutch merchants invested into a ship that was going to sail to Indonesia, fill up with spices, and sail back. Very literally, a venture. And then everybody would get a payout based on the profitability of that ship when it returned. In other words, the system was not built for the farmers who grew the spices, nor for the people who would consume them. Like any business, it was built for the people who would profit from that system, and the hierarchy of power kept their practices from becoming common knowledge.

If you want the best in spices you need to buy from a company with the shortest supply chain possible. What single-origin spice companies are trying to do has already happened with coffee, tea, chocolate, produce, and meat….you know where all the stuff comes from. Part of the quality is knowing that it came straight from a farmer and knowing how it got to you. New companies are trying to do the same thing with spices. They will tell you where the spices come from: plants and seeds and nuts and fruits. They can tell you that cinnamon is tree bark and peppercorns grow on vines in bunches like grapes. They will also tell you the farmer that grew them and where they were grown. You will know where it came from, when it was harvested, and the entire path that it took from the farmer’s field all the way into your kitchen.

So if you want flavorful, fresh, high-quality spices, but also spices where the suppliers are being paid fairly, then look no further. Here are our favorite players in the spice world, all available online.

FAQ

A suggestion: Buying a few single origin spices can make an impact on overall trade and can make an impact on your overall cooking. Perhaps you’d like to splurge on the one or two spices that you use the most? Perhaps you do a lot of baking and exquisite cinnamon will take it to the next level. Remember that spices make up a small portion of your annual food budget. Splurging on a few of the most important to you may not break the bank and can have a big impact on the farmers and the industry.

These spices are so much fresher and brighter with aromas so intense that home cooks should start with half of what a recipe calls for. Look at it this way, these spices are more potent than their supermarket counterparts; they will last longer and you use less. So do they really cost more?

The spice bug is contagious. Once you try these spices you will find it hard to go back.