Cratejoy
A quick peek inside your spice cabinet might reveal the usual suspects: salt, pepper, oregano, maybe some chili flakes. But if you’re hoping to add some oomph to your cooking, experimenting with spices is a surefire way to get there. Enter spice subscriptions: monthly shipments of lesser-known spices that can inspire home cooks to add new recipes to their repertoire. Here are 11 spice subscription boxes we love.
Prices and availability are subject to change.
$12/month from Curio Spice Co.
Curio Spice Co. founder Claire Cheney launched her sustainably produced spice shop in Somerville, Massachusetts, in 2015 before opening her first brick and mortar in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the following year. While you can find Curio’s spices in restaurants across the East Coast, you’re also able to fill your own kitchen with Cheney’s global finds delivered straight to your door. Members of the Curio Spice Club receive one or two spices or blends each month, accompanied by relevant recipes. Deliveries might include a bag of brining spices, Ferla Spice made with Sicilian herbs and salt, or Edo Spice made with chilies, citrus, and sansho pepper.
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$11/month and up from Cratejoy
You may be comfortable cooking with the spices that fill your own pantry, but what about spices from across the globe? Piquant Post specializes in curating monthly boxes that center around a particular country or region, pairing three to four freshly ground spices with regionally specific recipes — think dried Persian lime, ras el hanout, and spicy mint from the Middle East; or Amazon acai, Mexican adobo, and chipotle spice from Latin America. Sign up for a one-, six-, or 12-month subscription.
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$8/month and up from RawSpiceBar
If you’re committed to learning about new spices but don’t want to crowd your pantry shelves, RawSpiceBar provides a great entry point. The company, which offers subscriptions for one month, three months, six months, and a full year, delivers a two-ounce spice blend to your door each month, along with a seasonal recipe featuring the blend. Customers can indicate whether they’d like a recipe fit for omnivores or herbivores, and receive detailed instructions on how to make dishes like Xinjiang beef stir fry with RawSpiceBar’s Xinjiang Blend or tandoori rice stuffed acorn squash with the Tandoori Blend. Subscription holders will also have access to RawSpiceBar’s monthly newsletter.
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$150/year from Savory Spice
Members of Savory Spice’s Seasons of Spice Subscription box receive four shipments per year, with each box containing chef-curated spice collections that reflect the season. The collections feature four full-sized spices, along with a few sample spices to try out in your own kitchen. Each box is a surprise, but members might find spices like Pyramid Peak lemon pepper, Jamaican jerk seasoning, and smoked Spanish sweet paprika.
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$18/month and up from Cratejoy
Take a trip around the world with Spice Madam’s subscription box, available in one-, three-, six, and 12-month memberships. Each month invites the recipient to travel to a new location through a curated selection of spices and spice blends, along with five to six recipes and a themed music playlist to help set the mood. A welcome postcard features facts about the highlighted country, and each box sold supports a non-profit benefiting youth education. So what’s in your future? All the spices necessary to make dishes like lavender French madeleines, Moroccan lamb tagine, and aloo tikki with mint chutney.
$14/month from Cratejoy
SpiceBreeze’s Wanderlust Plus box allows you to choose from two or three meals, desserts, and seasonings each month, with recipes revolving around freshly ground spices from regions around the world. Dishes might include street food standouts or national favorites, and all boxes arrive with fun facts about what you’ll be cooking in the coming days.
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$45/every three months from Burlap & Barrel
With sustainability at the forefront of its business, Burlap & Barrel prioritizes sourcing directly from small farms and farmer cooperatives. Its Spice Club, which sends out boxes every three months, features four full-sized jars of spices, a collaboration product (think bitters made from Burlap & Barrel spices), and recipes. Spices might include pre-releases of new spices or new harvests of favorite standbys, like black lime, drumstick lemongrass, or smoked star anise. Boxes ship in February, May, August, and November.
Related: 19 Spices and Sauces to Keep Home-Cooked Meals Interesting
$23/month and up from Cratejoy
Indian food is the primary focus of the Spice Collective, a monthly subscription service that delivers Indian spice blends to your door. Blends might include tandoori masala, chana masala, pav bhaji masala, or makhani masala, each accompanied by a corresponding recipe — think chicken makhani or paneer butter masala. One-month, three-month, and six-month subscriptions are available, and the memberships make a great gift for any Indian food fan.
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$49/month from Roaming Radish
Though not composed entirely of spices, Roaming Radish’s monthly subscription boxes heavily feature spices and herbs, along with additional ingredients to create dishes from around the world. For each one-, three-, or six-month subscription, you might receive ground fenugreek seed, a hawaij spice blend, and red lentils to make red lentil stew; or toyomansi and pancit noodles to make pancit Canton.
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$42/month and up from Red Stick Spice Co.
Founded by Anne Milneck in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Red Stick Spice Co. celebrates the flavors of the South by sourcing local, sustainable ingredients. If you live in Baton Rouge, you’re fortunate enough to be able to visit the shop’s two brick-and-mortar locations. But if stopping by isn’t an option, sign up for Red Stick Spice’s monthly subscription box, C’est Si Bon, which is available in one-, three-, six-, and 12-month subscriptions. Inside each curated box is a selection of spices, infused sugar or extract, tea, some type of oil, a local artisanal product, and some small, additional gifts — known in New Orleans as “lagniappe,” or “a little extra.”
$14/month from Cratejoy
This colorful subscription box features two recipe kits each month, complete with freshly blended spices and easy-to-follow recipes that promise to teach you a new kitchen staple. With enough ingredients to feed four people, recipes might include Sri Lankan black pork curry with lunu miris (a spicy sambal paste), tandoori chicken with mango chutney, or Persian khoresht with sabzi polo (herb rice). The Spicery is based in the United Kingdom but ships all over the world, and offers one-, three-, six, and 12-month memberships.