You probably know this by now, but we want to emphasize it one more time. B.B. stands for best before. Producers are legally obliged to put a date on a product, but that doesn't necessarily mean that a product is no longer good after that date. The biggest problem with products like coffee, tea, cocoa, and spices is that they lose their flavor over time, not that they are bad for your health. That's why it's important to store your spices correctly.

The power of scent in our food

Our scent molecules largely determine how we experience flavors. These particles can reach our nose through the air. In nature, these scents form an attraction or warning for the plant's environment. A plant does not have just one type of scent particle, but several that together determine the flavor. There is always a dominant flavor present.

Scent, an important part of flavor, is stored in the essential oils of a plant. During the drying of a crop, a part dies, so the proportion of oils relatively increases. In other words: the flavor becomes more concentrated. If the flavor of products like coffee, tea, cocoa, and spices is determined by the scent particles in the oils, it is important to keep the percentage of these oils as high as possible. This gives you a rich flavor. If the percentage of oils decreases sharply, often only the dominant flavor will remain, the result: a recognizable, but monotonous flavor.

High quality therefore goes hand in hand with a high percentage of essential oils. Scent particles evaporate over time, which is why the flavor will also deteriorate if you want to store a product for too long. In addition, unground spices, coffee and cocoa beans are much better at retaining aromas and oils than the ground variant.

Single origin as a benchmark for quality

Another thing you can pay attention to if quality is important to you is whether the spices, tea or beans are single origin. This means that the crop is harvested in one location. Crops all have their own characteristics with a unique composition of aromas and oils. If the harvest from different farms is thrown together, this unique composition is lost in the bulk. Unfortunately, this still happens very often, because the flavors then become somewhat more monotonous and therefore more controllable (large companies always want to be able to offer the same taste experience). Bulk cocoa, for example, is only bitter, while cocoa can contain very complex flavors.

Single Origin is often seen as superior. The smaller the location, the more exclusive. Coffee, cocoa or spices from one farm or estate even have their own name: Single Estate. The crops are grown on a very small part of a high-quality farm. Another name for this is micro-lot.

Storing spices

Our spices are single origin and are shipped to us as quickly as possible after grinding, so that we can offer you spices that still contain many essential oils. The flavors and scents are intense and complex. And of course, you want to keep them that way for as long as possible. Therefore, always store your spices in an airtight and light-proof container. You want to avoid influences from oxygen, temperature, moisture, and light as much as possible. Therefore, store delicate products such as spices in a cool, dry, dark place. Our REPACKS are light-proof, but not airtight. Therefore, after opening, put the contents into a tin or container that can be tightly sealed as soon as possible. Stainless steel or dark-colored glass jars with an airtight lid are ideal. The tins you receive when you order, for example, the pioneerbox, are of course very suitable for storing your spices.

In this way, you can easily use the spices for at least another year after receipt.

Similar rules of thumb apply to chocolate. Storing chocolate in the refrigerator is therefore a no-go! Condensation can form on the chocolate here, causing a white haze on the chocolate. In addition, the chocolate absorbs odors from the refrigerator, which is not always as tasty.