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Christmas is a great time to spend with friends and family. Celebrate the festive season with these fantastic recipes and truly wow your guests.

We invite you to join us, Herbie and Liz, as we return to our beloved India to take you to some places where many tourists don’t go! And some amazing places that you just can’t miss. This is designed as a holiday, not an endurance test, and we have made the itinerary a little more leisurely than some earlier tours, so that you arrive home refreshed and well. Be a part of our small group and join the fun!

What kind of meal do you think of when you hear the word “curry”?  The origin of our English word is Kari, meaning a spiced sauce.  The English took the idea back home from the colonies, and the classic Madras curry – well-balanced and flavoursome - became a staple in the English household.  The French, meanwhile, had colonized the Pondicherry area on the south-eastern

What is Single Origin? We see it emblazoned on tea, coffee, spices and other foodstuffs.  It’s pretty simple really.  If all your potatoes have been grown in the Hunter Valley, they are single origin from that region – they don’t all have to come from the same farm. If, say, a coffee blender buys beans from Africa and South America, and mixes them all

The way popularity can start a race to the bottom! Let me begin by sharing my thoughts on Pot-Pourri, a now devalued and bastardised item. Some history: When I was growing up in my parent’s herb & spice business in the 1960’s, I would earn pocket money helping my father harvest scented plants to make his classic Pot-Pourri. Pot-Pourri was a traditional blend of

With Easter just around the corner, it’s time to think about the spices you’ll need for your Easter recipes. For all those sweet recipes such as cakes, biscuits and hot cross buns, cinnamon, allspice, cloves and cardamom are traditional, along with Mixed Spice. For extra fragrance and flavour, try using our Fragrant Sweet Spice Blend as an aromatic substitute. Easter is a great time

Thank You As we wish you all the best for 2019, we want to thank you all most sincerely for giving us our busiest December in years.  It’s great to know that the spice kits are still working well as gifts for your family and friends, and that your kitchens are well stocked with the best spices you can find. Sydney Spice It’s many

Thanks to Yotam Ottolenghi and his creative, tasty and easy to prepare recipes in his latest book SIMPLE, cooks are appreciating Middle Eastern Cuisine more than ever. And it is the spices that make these recipes so tantalising. Ottolenghi's Spice pantry essentials are: Barberies Cardamom Seed Ground Harissa Rose Harissa Nigella Seeds Pomegranate Molasses Sumac Urfa Chilli Flakes Za'atar Plus all the usual suspects

Making your own bespoke gin can be fun and satisfying if you have the right botanicals. Herbie’s Spices Ginspiration Spice Kit, combined with a vodka of your choosing, is a great way to commence your gin journey. Juniper Berries are the main ingredient that must be used to call a product Gin. However there are a number of other botanicals, which when used in

NEWSLETTER SUMMER 2018-19 Food safety … food security … everyone hears the term, but unless you’re in the industry, you don’t quite know what it means.  So let us fill you in on just what is involved in keeping your herbs and spices the way you want them to be.  Certification by HACCP is the first step.  The letters stand for Hazard Analysis Critical

Curry What do you think of when you hear the word Curry?  Does the image of a big pot of a protein swimming in lots of delicious rich gravy, served with rice and pappadams, come to your mind?  When a curry powder is made, it is basically a spice mix, just as Baharat, Chermoula and barbecue blends are spice mixes.  Don’t let yourself be

Have You Started Planning Your Personal & Corporate Gifts for this Christmas? Christmas in July started us thinking about the real Christmas that's coming up in just 5 months Herbie's Spices spice kits make the ideal corporate gift, and now is the time to start planning what to give to friends, clients and customers. Each kit contains a selection of herbs and spices and

During Herbie & Liz’s recent visit to India, they were delighted to see many of the restaurants including a dish of Gunpowder Spice along with the chutneys and other condiments. Herbie wasted no time in talking to the chefs about this blend that seemed to be all the rage. Although most were a little cagey about revealing all the ingredients and their proportions, Herbie was obsessed