Newsletters

Products There are always little buzz-words and catch-phrases that can tell you, in retrospect, just which time-zone they were in. Remember fibre? These days it’s low GI. Remember low-fat? Now it’s 97% fat-free. (Thanks, Catherine Saxelby, for those updates.) There is a new word in the food business now; the word is provenance. With the advent of mad cow disease and foot and mouth

Our Spice Kits As Christmas approaches for the ninth time since the opening of the doors at Herbie’s, we have been doing some soul-searching. Are our little gift kits becoming old hat? Should we be looking for new and interesting, albeit more expensive, packaging? Apparently we’re alone with these thoughts, as our customers continue to love them and come back for more. Herbie’s gift

Setting the Record Straight! Over the last eight years, Australian cooks have become more knowledgeable about, and more comfortable with, all sorts of spices, and we’d like to think that these newsletters have had a hand in that. So we beg to set a common misconception straight – Middle Eastern food is not Moroccan! So often one hears or reads about “Moroccan” food and spices which

India Travels January 2005 saw us once again tripping through India and Sri Lanka with our Spice Discovery Tour, accompanied by 16 of the most amenable people we could have hoped to meet. Booking all accommodation with the excellent Taj Group ensured very comfortable rooms everywhere we went, and the itinerary ran without a hitch. Our group has returned home armed with lots of

Spices from Bhutan About a year ago, we met a group of representatives from the small kingdom of Bhutan and agreed to assist them with the marketing of their spice crops. It is a landlocked country, bordered on the northern side by Mongolia and on the other three sides by India. To help you place this tiny kingdom on your mental map, picture Nepal

The latest on Spice Appreciation Classes After more than six years of trading, our Spice Appreciation Classes continue to be in great demand, and we have been sorry to have to turn people away from fully booked classes. As our classes for 2003 have been fully booked for some months, we are pleased to tell you that the timetable for next year has now

Where did Spring go! It would seem that our Spring newsletter never made it out due to a technical hitch, sorry! We thought as spring is still not quite over you may still enjoy this update. All the best, Herbie. Spice Grinding Mills During a stay in India not long before we opened Herbie’s, we found a marvellous spice grinding mill. It is the

Thursday Night Meal Ideas Do you lack a true appreciation of Thursday? It’s on the run-down to the week’s end, it’s almost Friday, and it’s a handy evening to catch up with friends when the weekend calendar is just too busy. As a friend so rightly says: Thursday comes but once a week, so you must make the most of it! With this in

Most of Australia is sweltering under the humidity and still heat of February, and autumn has never seemed more welcome or more attractive. On these hot days, we’ve been making the most of the melons in season and making a juice of fresh ginger, watermelon and rockmelon, with lots of ice. Very refreshing! Shichimi Togarashi Your response to our newest blend, Shichimi Togarashi, as been

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.” We’ve all heard it and said it since childhood, but most people probably never wonder about the origins of this alliterative tongue-twister. It is actually based on fact. The administrator of Ile de France (now known as Mauritius) in 1770 was a gentleman named Pierre Poivre. His first

Changes in Food Regulations In recent years there has been an increasing emphasis placed on food safety, which of course is of primary importance to consumers and food producers alike. However, achieving a sensible balance when it comes to the interpretation of regulations can be challenging – is it really realistic to expect a busy restaurant to check the internal temperature of each serving

As this summer of extremes draws to a close, we look forward to kinder weather and hopefully some much-needed rain. As the herb and spice business is firmly based in the world of agriculture, we have a vested interest in seeing production flourish in all parts of the globe. Fourth Spice Tour of India We recently did our fourth Spice Tour to India with

Our Latest Journey to Spain In spite of those who would have us live in fear, we have recently returned from a fascinating, stimulating trip to Spain, where we were royally looked after by our Spanish paprika supplier. Paprika grows in the very dry southern and south-west areas of Spain, and is picked twice in a season. After being harvested, the fresh paprikas, looking