Spices: Why Freshness Matters

You know the feeling: You reach into the shelf where all of your spices are jumbled together, shuffling them around until you finally spot the nutmeg you need. You have no idea how long it’s been hiding back there. Six months? A year? Longer? You shrug your shoulders, get back to cooking, and hope for the best.

It turns out that having a disorganized spice shelf of old spices not only does the opposite of “sparks joy,” but may be affecting your cooking. Although they’re not printed on the bottle, spices do have an expiration date of sorts. Most ground spices can stay fresh for a year if stored properly. That said, it’s typically impossible to know when they were actually ground, so your best game plan for optimal freshness is to replace them every six months. 

Storage is important, too. Like many other foods, spices are susceptible to the elements: Heat, light, and oxygen can all erode a spice’s shelf life and flavor. So you want to store them in a cool, dry place — most definitely nowhere near the stove or oven — in containers that don’t let light in (read: opaque) with lids that can close tightly so that no air or moisture can seep in. 

Because although you probably think of spices in whole or powder form, it’s actually the spices’ essential oils that house most of their flavor. Once those oils are compromised, so is the flavor of your food. You might even find that with fresher spices, you need to use less, because those concentrated essential oils are still vibrant. 

So how do you make sure you’re getting the maximum flavor at all times? With the seasoning management system Evermill has designed, you’re guaranteed the benefits of fresh spices: 

• Say goodbye to wondering when spices were processed, as Evermill ships its spices as soon as they’re cured — capturing all those critical oils, where the flavor lives. 

• Once they’re in your kitchen, you’ll always know what’s what. The spice rack’s opaque jars protect your spices from the elements, and its revolutionary alignment system ensures that everything stays organized and in its place. In other words, you’ll be able to easily see when you’re in need of a refill.

• When you actually do need to re-stock, Evermill’s text-to-refill system ensures that you’ll have new spice on-hand when you need them. All you have to do is text the name to 745457, and it’ll be at your doorstep in one to three business days.

With Evermill, you’ll discover why cooking with fresh spices is a whole new ballgame.