Recently on the Bread Bakers Digest mailing list someone asked about buying
cardamom by mail order.  Lots of people responded by saying good things about
a company called Penzey's.  I had never heard of them before.  But with so
many good recommendations, it seemed worth checking out.

Someone posted that they have a web site at http://www.penzeys.com, so I
went to look at that.  Ouch, it's not a very good web site.  They've taken
photographs of the pages of their printed catalog and put those on the web.
It's not readable.  Not useful.

However, the website lets you fill in the blanks to request a paper catalog.
So I did that.  They mailed me a catalog right away.

Wow!  What a catalog!  They go into lots of detail describing how the
different spices are produced.  For example, on the nutmeg-and-mace page,
they have a picture of nutmeg being harvested, plus detailed pictures of how
the nutmeg and the mace grow together.  And they have a description of how
nutmeg is grown and harvested.  It's fascinating reading.

The catalog has a wide variety of spices.  Plus they have some neat
assortments for gifts.  The assortments are often packed with bay leaves and
cinamon sticks as packing materials.  They include a note for the recipient
to explain what the packing materials are.

I'm having so much fun reading this catalog that even though my spice-buying
needs are all met locally, I plan to buy some spices from them, to thank them
for producing such a cool catalog.  Neat!

19 responses total.

Cool, Valerie!! Can you post a phpne number so I can order a copy?? [I can't
do web stuff so I can't order that way...]

Hmm, what other good mail order catalogs/companies are out there?

If you can grex, you can do web stuff. It's called lynx, and it's right
here on grex. 

Well, normally you can use lynx for web stuff. I just tried this site and
got a blank screen. I guess some sites are a little too image intensive.
But try lynx anyway. Follow some of the pre-arrainged links and see where
you end up!

Their phone number is 414-679-7207, fax 414-679-7878.  Their hours are 8:30am
to 5pm Monday through Friday, 9am to 3pm Saturdays.  Central time.

Their snail-mail address is:

Penzeys, Ltd.
Post Office Box 933
Muskego, Wisconsin 53150

Penzeys is amazing.  They offer several types of vanilla (as extract
or as beans), for example.  The best one, they say, comes from
Madegascar.  

I've want'ed to order a couble of their spice blends, which sound
wonderful.

They have a store in Madison, Wisconsin.  I'm going to be in Madison in
October.  This store is definitely on my itinerary.  :)

Valarie, if you remember and you are able, would you pick me up a small
bottle of vanilla from Penzeys either when you are there or when you place
an order from the catalog.  Let me know if you get it, when I can pick it up.
Many thanks.

I will try to remember to do that.  Which kind of vanilla would you like? 
They carry Double Strength Vanilla (4 ounces, $8.95; 16 ounces, $29.90) and
Single Strength Vanilla (4 ounces 5.95; 16 ounces $19.90).  And also
Madagascar Vanilla Beans ($1.99 each for 1 bean, up to $1.49 each if you get
15 beans), Mexican Vanilla Beans (same prices), and Indonesian Vanilla Beans
($1.49 each, up to $.99 each if you buy 15 beans).  :)

(drool.  Oh, *gawd*, I love vanilla!)

You have my okay to spend $10 for whatever you think best.  Any size.  The
double strength sounds great.  It lasts a long time and I love the scent and
the taste in many foods.  Thanks if you can do it.  Okay if you forget or
cant.

Oh yes, I really want the liquid in a jar vanilla, not the bean.  Thanks
again.

[re: #2, nope, I can't do web stuff even tho' I *can* do Grex... 
My ancient computer doesn't have enough RAM --only has 4 megs!]

[It doesn't matter.  When you do web stuff from Grex, you're using Grex's RAM,
not the RAM on your computer.]

You guys have said all there is to say about Penzey's, but I thought I'd
add my two cents.  I also get their catalog and have purchased stuff
from them.  The cinnamon I bought was the absolute best I've ever used.
The vanilla was very good, too.  I'm a very happy customer.

I just got my order from them (haven't tried the cinnamon yet, but the salad
spices were phenominal.  I used some ona  salad and another on some steamed
veggies along with the butter.  Wow!)

I got a new Penzey's catalog recently and was reading through it today.  I
find something on every page that I want to buy when I'm in Madison.  What
wonderful reading material.

Some other good mail order catalogs are Williams Sonoma (assorted nice kitchen
things, many painted dark green) and King Arthur Flours (lots of types of
flour, and baking supplies).  Both these catalogs have recipes.  So does the
Penzey's catalog.  I'm amused by the recipes for craft projects that require
8 ounces of cinnamon or 4 ounces of cloves.  No doubt these are wonderful
crafts.  But it's gotta be hard work to find ways to use up that many ounces
of spices in a single recipe.

<Laugh>  But very clever of them!  I think if I were to do crafts with 
cloves or cinnamon, I'd buy the buck a bottle cheapo spices from Big 
Lots and save the good stuff (ie Pennzeys) for cooking, where I can 
really appreciate 'em.  ;)

Yesterday, when visiting Madison, Wisconsin, I visited the Penzey's store.
It's basically a big room with lots of spice bottles along the walls.
I collected up a bit of this and a bottle of that.  The fellow who runs the
store seems like he may well be an owner, or at least very knowledgeable. 
He made suggestions like, "If you meant to buy a pound of that, let me find
you a 1-pound bag instead of those two 8-ounce bags, because it will be
cheaper" and "You don't really want white cardamom, do you?  It's just green
cardamom that's been bleached."  I took his suggestions and modified my order.
At the end, the total for my order seemed very low.  I paid, thanked him, and
drove back to Michigan.

This morning, when I looked at the receipt, I discovered that he had only
charged me for one $9 bottle of double-strength vanilla extract instead of
for the three I'd bought.  I called up and asked him to charge my credit card
for the other two bottles.  He was adamant that he wouldn't do it, because
this had been his mistake.  He said I could best make it up to him by
continuing to buy from Penzey's.

Neat!

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