Where to buy spices

[Musie]

I'm looking for a good website to buy hard to find spices and spice mixes. I am mainly after Indian spices, and in particular a chaat masala spice mix.

I've tried eBay, but I guess I want a little more than what they can offer. Suggestions?

My main requirement is that they will post to Canada.

[Lipant]

SilkRoadSpices.ca is Canadian and are extremely dependable and fast. They have a great selection of spices. I have had other spice merchants sell me products with bugs in them, (yeeeow!) but these people are CLEAN.

[jpr54_1]

these r the companies
http://www.penzeys.com/cgi-bin/penzeys/penzeysstores.html
www.savoryspiceshop.com

[GH1618]

This might be a better source, as TSH does not seem to have a prepared chaat masala blend. But they do not state whether they will ship to Canada.

http://www.zamourispices.com/comingso...

[GH1618]

I chose The Spice House (Chicago) for their large selection and well-designed website. I don't know much about Indian spices, though, so check it out They do ship to Canada.

[Querencia]

Are you near a city? There are so many Indian people living in the US now that Indian grocery stores are in every big city. In Chicago we have Devon Avenue which Indian friends tell me is famous in India. Not only Indian spice mixtures are sold Devon Avenue's many markets, but spices commonly used in the US are much less expensive, eg a pound bag of whole cloves for $3.99.

[HillJ]

Really an entire lb? I've seen whole cloves for $3.99/oz..not a lb. That's incredible pricing. WSM would charge $48.00 for a lb of whole cloves.

[MsMaryMc]

...not to mention it would take most home cooks forever to use up an entire pound of most spices! Even if there was a price break, I'd prefer to buy an ounce or two at a time--the rest would go stale before I could use it.

[Harters]

Amazingly cheap cloves. Here in the UK, they'd cost around £1.50 for 50g at the asian shops.

[HillJ]

Excellent source, prices are very competitive and fair, and you can buy as little as 2 oz. of whole or freshly ground to order spices. Blends are avail too and be sure to check out their very unusual recipe file-a real keeper!

http://www.worldspice.com/

You won't be disappointed.

[MsMaryMc]

I'll second World Spice--you can't go wrong there. I'm lucky enough to live in Seattle, where I can go in the store--and if they charged me just to walk in and inhale, I'd happily pay! Their collection of customers' business cards--chefs and buyers from most of the best restaurants and artisanal producers in town--is testimony to their local reputation.

[Harters]

A quick Google turns up this company in Toronto which has online sales and does sell south asian spices.

http://www.ehouseofspice.com/index.php?view=products

And here's soem more Toronto based companies which should be worth exploring. http://www.blogto.com/eat_drink/2012/04/10_places_to_shop_for_spices_in_toronto/

And another based in Calgary - http://www.silkroadspices.ca/

[Maximilien]

Épices de Cru in Montreal have Chaat Masala, in "small" quantity,but if you want larger quantity, I think you should contact them and arrange something; they're a nice bunch.

http://www.epicesdecru.com/fr/

I would imagine they ship in the ROC.

[Kelli2006]

I thought about Penzeys but they add on about $65 surcharge for Canadian shipping.

The Spice House ships to Canada.

http://www.thespicehouse.com/info/shi...

[knucklesandwich]

Kalustyan's in NYC is legendary, and they ship "overseas".

[JungMann]

Kalustyan's is a great resource for one stop shopping in Manhattan, but when you have the world at your fingertips, they are rather marked up.

Khana Pakana, a South Asian recipe forum, has a shopping site that delivers to Canada and it appears their prices are about in line with what I would expect to pay at my local Indo-Pak grocer. When considering which chaat masala to buy, I would recommend Shan brand. I find their mixes generally require the least adulteration at home.
http://shop.khanapakana.com/

[GH1618]

You must mean "adjustment" instead of "adulteration."

[JungMann]

Oops! Thanks for catching that.