The Spice of Life

The Spice Trader
805 Queen Street West
647-430-7085

To walk into The Spice Trader is an anomaly in the nicest of ways. Part Parisian emporium, part Moroccan bazaar, it is all earthy wooden shelves, warm shades of green and a black & white art deco floor wrapped up in the scents of far off places. Its contrasts work well though, this balance of exotic yet charming, creating the kind of scene where cell-wielding power suits can shop in blessed harmony beside hemp-clad hippies.

The Spice Trader is the inception of Neil Bougourd and his life partner, Allison Johnston, a former offshore banker and assistant film director, respectively. One day the jobs became too heavy, as jobs often can, and the sparkle of salaries and industry prestige wore down to make way for a simpler existence, and greater peace of mind. After coming back to Canada following a work stint in Guernsey for Bougourd, the pair decided to leave the rat race and open a shop.

They both loved food, so that became the focus, and looked into organic after Johnston was diagnosed with, and survived, breast cancer. “We basically chipped away at it and said, ‘No one’s really doing organic spices.’”

The Spice Trader is inspired by the concept and boutiques of Europe, where everyday food is purchased fresh, and most items have their own storefronts. If you want bread, you go to the baker, and if you want cheese, you go to the cheese monger. “If you want spices, you go to a little spice shop.”

The shop is indeed little, but the stock is most impressive at 120 spices and counting, including salts and custom blends. All the basics live here, like basil and thyme, but so do Egyptian barberries, Indonesian ginger, Guatemalan cardamom, French chicory, cocoa powder from Hispaniola, and African grains of paradise. There are also distinctions, like Iranian dried limes, Turkish sumac, a spice almost impossible to find on Canadian shores, and Indian Asafetida, which is the resin of the giant fennel plant.

There is an otherworldly feeling to the Spice Trader, standing in the centre of this culinary atlas. It makes something as ordinary as spice shopping, more like being in a Choose your own Adventure novel.

The packaging, too, tells its own story; light is one of the worst things you can do to spice. Purchasing spices in glass jars and plastic packets greatly reduces not just the potency and quality, but the shelf life. Bougourd says that the rule of thumb regarding spices is, if ground, a year to 18 months, and if whole, anywhere from three to five years, depending on what it is. When in tins, these numbers are much higher.

And, as it turns out, there are reasons why we should buy and use organic spices. To begin with, months of not sitting on warehouse shelves guarantees the spices are much, much fresher. “You can taste the difference, and the smell, too. It’s more in cooking that you notice it; the volatile oils come out.”

Bougourd compares the experience to a good perfume where, if you leave the top off the bottle for awhile, the top notes of the scent dissipate. You can still smell the perfume, but the quality just isn’t there.

Also, little known to many, spices are some of the most pesticide-laden foods on the market, as they are irradiated and chemically treated for toxins. These toxins stick to the oils of the spices. At the Spice Trader, these concerns are nil. “The majority of our spices are organic. We buy in very small batches so that they’re always very fresh. We have no additives, preservatives, fillers, colourants, nothing. Pure spices.”

Moreover, spices are good for us, as they are loaded with medicinal properties. Bougourd mentions that in India, a brand of bandage with turmeric is being manufactured, as the spice is anti-inflammatory and halts infection.

Once a banker and film director; now vendors and purveyors of spice. Bougourd tells me that since the opening of the Spice Trader things have changed, and for the better. “It’s changed our outlook on how we eat. It’s changed our lifestyle. It feels like we’re giving something back by being organic.”

Truly, we are the lucky ones. If spice has a home, they have made a lovely one.