teaspoon spices

Why teaspoon packets?

A woman wrote us recently to ask why we package spices in teaspoon packets. "I have a teaspoon -- don't need it portioned out for me," she said.

Here's what we told her:

Good question! We sell spices in teaspoon packets for one simple reason -- to keep the spices tasting fresh. As you may know, the enemies of spice flavor are light, air and moisture, and a major spice company has long told consumers to store their spices away from these elements. Of course, they then package spices in glass or plastic bottles that expose the spices to light and, once they are opened, to air and moisture. They also encourage consumers to "toss out spices seasonally" and buy new supplies. But that is expensive and nobody we know actually does that.
   
So we thought: Why not package spices so they stay fresh? We decided that one teaspoon was the most useful size for home cooks, so that's what we did. If you use lots and lots of a certain spice or herb, you my find traditional packaging works just fine for you. However, for spices that will sit in your cabinet for a year or two getting more and more stale, our packaging is a great solution -- saving flavor and saving money.

And although it may seem counterintuitive, our packaging is actually less of a load on the environment. Our tins are re-usable and recyclable, and the packet material weighs far less and takes up far less space than the plastic bottles and glass jars that are in most spice cabinets. And because our packets have a much longer shelf life, our customers don't have to throw out half-full bottles of stale spice.

So it's simple: Packets preserve flavor -- and give you better value for your spice dollar.

No more stale spice!

 

Smart packaging

You may not have seen Smart Spice in your grocery yet -- but we hope you soon will. It's a brand designed to bring you top-quality organic spices that taste fresh to the very last teaspoon. Until then, you can order it online at alice.com, amazon.com, or our own website, smart-spice.com.

There's another thing we like about our airtight, one-teaspoon packets: The packaging is much easier on the environment than typical bottles and jars. In fact, Smart Spice, with a cardboard carton and four packets of spice has a total packaging weight of 7.5 grams -- half the weight of a small (1 oz.) plastic spice bottle. We think that's smart packaging. 

Here's Katie explaining our environmental advantage.

And here's a chart that spells it out in numbers:

 

Throw it out!

Phil Lempert, the “supermarket guru,” is an enterprising fellow who reviews new products for consumers. He recently posted some thoughts about food freshness, along with guidelines about how to store items and when to throw them out.

This is what he wrote about storing spices and herbs:

“To preserve freshness and nutrients store both ground and whole spices in tightly sealed, glass containers, in a cool, dark and dry place. Not above your stove, or next to your oven! Ground spices and herbs will keep for about 6 months. Whole spices and herbs will stay fresh for about one year if stored the same way….”

The guru was correct to suggest storing spices in tightly sealed containers that protect against light and moisture. He was also correct not to endorse using plastic for storage. I do not know that plastic containers would affect the flavor of stored spices, but I do know that plastic is worse for the environment than other packaging.

Here at The Seasoned Palate, our mission and passion is to provide a better solution for storing spices.
Smart Spice packages spices in the amounts that cooks actually use, and with more efficient use of packaging. A carton of Smart Spice contains four servings of spice, but only 7 grams of packaging – only 1.7 grams of packaging per serving. The packaging is paper and foil, all recyclable.

In contrast, a typical plastic bottle of spice represents 21 grams of packaging, and only 20% of plastic bottles are recycled. Glass jars of spice are recyclable, but they weigh 116 grams. That’s 16 times more packaging than Smart Spice.

Those numbers don’t count the money you waste by buying more spice than you can use before it goes stale.

That dilemma was our inspiration for Smart Spice. Our lives are too short and our earth is too precious to waste valuable resources, whether it’s spice or money or packaging material.

Packaging and the environment

From time to time we are asked whether our packaging is environmentally friendly. The answer is yes, but it’s worth saying why.

Katie and I thought long and hard about packaging, because it was all those jars of wasted spices in our cabinets that inspired this idea in the first place.

Now that we have two brands on the market, we’ll have to explain each of them. Smart Spice, our new brand, features the same idea as tsp spices — pre-measured packets that protect spices from light, air and moisture, thus preserving their flavor and giving you, the consumer, a longer time to take advantage of their rich flavors. Smart Spice comes in a simple cardboard carton with four one-teaspoon packets in each.

Our initial line, tsp spices, features designer tins with 12 teaspoon packets of spice. These tins provide attractive storage. If you no longer need them for your spices, they are easily recycled. They can also be put to other good uses around the house, from storing nails and tacks to stamps, paperclips and stray Legos. Our brown gift boxes are great for recipe cards and note cards, and they make perfect treasure boxes for kids.

The only part of our packaging that is not recyclable is the foil-lined teaspoon packet. We are waiting for the packaging break-through that will make available a biodegradable material that will be able to seal out light, air and moisture, the three enemies of spice flavor.

In the meantime, we believe we are making a responsible packaging choice. The “stick packaging” technology used for our packets was developed in Japan to use less than half the amount of material found in those foil-lined packets used for tea bags.

Any packaging involves environmental trade-offs, and we believe our packaging makes sense for the consumer. It protects the spice flavor and gives our products a long shelf life, while also making them easy for consumers to use. Certainly, this packaging makes more sense for spices than the traditional jars and bottles that force consumers to buy far more spices than they will use before the spices are as stale as last summer’s grass clippings.

Our small packets provide a huge benefit to consumers. They protect spice flavor and give our products a long shelf life and makes our spices easy to use. And, in the long run, they are far less a burden on the environment than all those half-full bottles (many of them plastic) of stale spices that get thrown away.

--Sara