The most common answer to the question of which spice you still miss in our assortment is: coriander seeds. And we wholeheartedly agree. Coriander seeds are fantastic, provided the quality is good. Then it doesn't taste like soap suds, but like fresh citrus notes on a beautiful spring day.

The best coriander seeds we have tasted so far came from Sicily. Unfortunately, not from Vadibella, our partner there from whom we buy our fennel seeds and thyme.

The working methods of the farmer who grows the coriander seeds there are not in line with ours, so we looked for a way to still obtain coriander seeds from Sicily.

And we had found that way. Or so we thought.

The farmers of Vadibella planted a coriander field in response to our request. It would be a nice additional income stream for them.

A learning moment for all parties: bringing a new spice to the market is not without its challenges

As you probably know by now, growing high-quality spices involves quite a lot. First, the plants must, of course, grow well and yield a good harvest. It is a search for the plant that thrives best in a specific area. But once the spices are growing, it's not over yet. They still need to be harvested, sorted, dried, packaged, possibly ground, and shipped.

And something can go wrong at every step.

Growing the coriander seeds went well. It looked beautiful. The first challenge came when it turned out that Vadibella did not have the right machines to sort the seeds, which meant they had to send them to us unscreened. Now, we usually don't shy away from a challenge and found a creative solution for this in collaboration with de Bolster: a company that sells organic seeds. They do have the machines to clean these types of seeds, and they were kind enough to help us with that.

Unfortunately, we only received the lab test results afterwards, which we always have done for our spices. Since the tests for fennel seeds and thyme, from the same land, are always in order, we did not expect any problems with this.

Nevertheless, we encountered an unexpected problem: excessively high mold levels.

It is very difficult to determine exactly what caused this, but it could be that the seeds were picked just too late, causing them to dry too much on the plant. This reduces the amount of essential oils in the plant, making it more susceptible to, for example, molds and yeasts. Perhaps it also happened during transport, and the packaging method influenced it.

Long story short: unfortunately, we had to reject this batch of coriander seeds.

Super disappointing. We were all ready for it. The sticker for the tin, the product card, recipe ideas... everything was already prepared. But reality is sometimes more stubborn than the ideal.

And so, together with Vadibella, we are looking for ways to improve these processes, hoping to still be able to offer coriander seeds together in the future. But for now, you unfortunately won't find them in our shop.