Most writing about bulk spices is an advertisement for bulk spices. This is not that. Buying by weight is usually the better deal, and there is a real set of cases where it is the worse one, and knowing which is which saves more money than any per-ounce discount.
First, a note on numbers. We are not going to quote prices. Leaf & Larder has no stock and no licence yet, so any figure we printed would be invented, and an invented number is worse than no number. What we can give you is the method, which does not go out of date.
What you are actually paying for in a jar
A supermarket spice jar is a container, a label, a cap, a shelf position and a brand, with some spice in it. That is not a criticism — the packaging is doing real work, keeping air out and letting you find the thing in a cupboard. But you are buying all of it, and the ratio varies wildly by spice.
The tell is bulk versus weight. A jar of ground cumin is dense and mostly cumin. A jar of bay leaves is mostly air, and a jar of whole cardamom pods is not far behind. The same shelf space, the same price bracket, and radically different amounts of ingredient. Spices that are light and bulky for their weight are where buying by weight wins by the widest margin, and they are also the ones people most often think of as expensive.
When bulk is clearly the better buy
- Whole, durable forms. Peppercorns, cumin and coriander seed, fennel seed, whole cloves, allspice berries, cinnamon quills, bay leaves, dried chilies, whole nutmeg. These keep for years, so a larger quantity is not a gamble.
- Things you use constantly. If a spice goes into your cooking every week, you cannot buy too much of it within reason.
- Unusual quantities. A recipe wants three tablespoons of fennel seed and you will not use fennel again for a year. Buying twenty grams by weight is exactly right and no jar is sold that way.
- Dry goods generally. Beans, lentils, rice and grains are the least ambiguous case. They are cheap by weight, they keep, and the package adds nothing.
- Teas that are hard to kill. Rooibos, hibiscus, a robust black tea. They tolerate storage.
When bulk is the worse buy
- Ground spices you use twice a year. A large bag of ground coriander is a large bag of future dust. Ground spices are strongest for three to six months. Buying eight ounces at half the per-ounce price and throwing five ounces away is not a saving.
- When the bin has poor turnover. This is the honest one, and it cuts against the usual pitch. A bulk bin at a slow shop can hold older, more faded spice than a jar at a busy supermarket. Bulk is only fresher if the stock actually moves. Ask when a bin was last filled. If nobody knows, that is your answer.
- When you cannot smell it first. Buying spices by weight sight-unseen, by mail, from a seller you do not know yet, is buying a promise. Start small.
- When your storage is bad. A hot kitchen, clear jars on a sunny shelf, a rack above the stove. Eight ounces stored badly loses more than one ounce stored well. Fix the shelf before you scale the purchase.
- When freshness is the whole product. Green tea, lemon balm, ground nutmeg, ground cardamom. These fade fast enough that a large quantity is a large quantity of disappointment.
- Very expensive aromatics. Saffron is bought a gram or two at a time by almost everyone, because a year-old saffron is a weaker saffron and you will not use a large amount before that happens.
The arithmetic that matters
Unit price is the first step and not the last one. In most US stores the shelf tag carries a price per ounce or per hundred grams; use that rather than the package price, and check the unit, because tags sometimes price per item instead.
Then do the second calculation, which almost nobody does: price per usable ounce. Estimate honestly how much of it you will use while it still tastes of something. If you will get through two ounces of ground cumin in six months, then two ounces is your denominator no matter how much you bought. Bulk wins when the per-ounce price falls and the usable fraction stays near one. It loses when the per-ounce price falls and the usable fraction falls faster.
How to buy from a bin well
- Smell it before you buy it. A live spice announces itself at the scoop.
- Look at the colour. Faded paprika and brown-grey dried herbs have been in the light.
- Ask when it was filled, and buy from the shops that can answer.
- Buy the smallest quantity that settles the question, then come back for more.
- Write the month on the container when you get home. In four months you will not remember, and the date is what turns a guess into a decision.
The short version
Buy whole spices, beans, grains and durable teas by weight, in quantities you will use within their aroma life. Buy small amounts of anything ground, anything delicate and anything you are trying for the first time. And treat a bulk bin with poor turnover as what it is — a shelf, not a guarantee.
About this article
Leaf & Larder has no licence and no stock yet, and nothing here is an offer to sell anything. This is editorial writing about cooking. It makes no medical or health benefit claims about any ingredient, and where we did not know something we left it out rather than guessing.