What Are Spices? Spices vs Herbs, Seasonings and Supplements

What counts as a spice

A spice is a flavoring made from a part of a plant other than the leaf. It is usually dried, and it is used in small amounts to add flavor or color to food. [1][2] The part can be a seed, a fruit, a root, bark, a flower bud or even the tiny threads inside a flower. [1]

Here are examples from the list on this site:

• Bark: cinnamon and cassia. [1]


• Flower bud: Cloves. [1]


• Seed: Cumin, mustard seed and nutmeg. [1]


• Fruit: Black pepper and cayenne and chili pepper. [1]


• Root or rhizome (underground stem): Ginger, turmeric and galangal. [1]


• Stigma (the thread-like part of a flower): Saffron. [1]


• Aril (a covering around a seed): Mace, which grows around the nutmeg seed. [1]


• Resin (dried sap): Asafoetida. [1]

The edges are fuzzy. Two plants on our list, curry leaf and bay leaf, are leaves, and leaves are usually called herbs. We include them because cooks reach for them as part of the spice shelf, especially in slow-cooked dishes. Sugar is not counted as a spice. [1]

Spice, herb, seasoning, blend and supplement

These words overlap, so here is how we use them.

Some plants are both. Dill leaves are an herb, and dill seeds are a spice. [2] The same goes for coriander: the leaves are cilantro, and the seeds are coriander seed. On this site the Spices section covers the spice side, and the Herbs and Botanicals section covers the same plants as supplements and plant medicines.

A pinch in a recipe is food. A capsule or extract is a supplement. In the United States, supplements fall under a different set of rules than ordinary foods, and the makers are responsible for checking the safety and labeling of their products before sale. [3] We say which one we mean every time we talk about health.

A short history, and where spices come from

Spices are among the oldest traded goods. By about 2000 BCE there was trade across the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East that included cinnamon and black pepper, and cloves had reached Mesopotamia by about 1700 BCE. [1] Merchants from Indonesia traveled to China, India, the Middle East and East Africa, and Arab merchants ran many of the overland routes. [1] Monsoon winds later made sea trade easier and slowly replaced the caravan roads. [1]

In the Middle Ages, Venice held the trade in Middle Eastern spices for centuries, and pepper, cinnamon, cumin, nutmeg, ginger and cloves were highly prized. Saffron was the most exclusive. [1] After the Portuguese reached India by sea in 1499, they took control of key sea routes. Plants from the Americas, such as allspice, chili peppers and vanilla, then joined the shelf. [1]

Today India grows about three quarters of the world's spices, with Bangladesh, Turkey, China and Pakistan also among the large producers. [1] Nutmeg began in the Banda Islands of Southeast Asia. [1] Our spice pages say where each plant grows, in the "What it is" section.

How the 40 spices on this site are grouped

We sort the spices into seven families by how they taste and what they do in a pot. This is our own kitchen grouping, not a scientific one, so a spice sits in the family where a cook would look for it.

Sweet and aromatic7

Warming and pungent6

Hot peppers and peppercorns6

Earthy and savory7

Seed spices7

Floral, citrus and tangy5

Paprika and smoky2

For a deeper look at taste, see the spice flavor and aroma guide.

All 40 spices at a glance

Spice blends combine several of these. Garam masala from the Indian subcontinent, five-spice powder from China, za'atar from the Middle East and ras el hanout from North Africa are examples. [1] See spice blends: garam masala, curry powder and five-spice.

How to read the pages on this site

Every spice page puts the kitchen first and health second.

1. Kitchen first. What it is, how it tastes and smells, how people cook with it, how much a teaspoon weighs, and how to buy and store it.
2. Normal food amounts. We give grams per teaspoon from USDA data where an entry exists, and we say plainly when there is none. Most spices add almost no nutrients in a pinch, and we say so.
3. Health second. A table splits "normal cooking" from "supplements and extracts", because studies often use far more than anyone eats. [3]
4. Evidence words. We use "promising but limited", "mixed" or "insufficient evidence" rather than promises. Tradition is not proof, and nothing here says a spice treats or prevents a disease.
5. Safety in more detail. Medicines, pregnancy, children, allergy and contamination, only where a source says so.

For the health side across spices, read spices in food vs supplements and spice safety: medicines, pregnancy and allergy. For buying and grinding tips, see buying, storing and grinding spices.

Whole spices are said to keep about two years and ground spices about six months, and grinding at home releases more flavor. [1] That is one reason many cooks keep the whole version.