Penzey's Spices-favorites?

Katmary71
Katmary71 Posts: 7,035 Member
I'm going to be near and visiting a Penzey's next month and usually want to buy everything when I go! What are your must haves from there?

My favorites are:
Mural of Flavor. Great on vegetables. I use it on my egg/vegetable scramble all the time.
Fox Point: excellent coating the top of salmon with squeezed lemon! This is my favorite blend, it has salt, shallots, chives, garlic, onion, and green peppercorns.My mom sprinkles it on salads and uses it in place of onion seasoning for chips and dip. Good on chicken too.
Penzey cinnamon, both the store named one and Vietnamese.
Chili Con Carne seasoning- I've been using it with their Chipotle pepper in sweet potato turkey chili. It's not spicy alone, so the combo is good.
Tuscan Sunset- I put this in a different bottle and only remember it has peppers, but it's great on eggs.

So far even their regular black pepper is good so it's tough to narrow down a list! I'd love to hear your favorites.
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Replies

  • apullum
    apullum Posts: 4,838 Member
    I LOVE Penzey's. You already got my favorite: Fox Point. Try it on eggs and pizza.

    I like their 33rd and Galena on roasted veggies. Their taco seasoning mix is good too.

    I also keep a lot of basic spices from Penzey's. Of these, the ones I especially like are the smoked paprika and the chili powder. Pretty much all my spices are from Penzeys, so I can talk about others too.
  • lporter229
    lporter229 Posts: 4,907 Member
    I love the smoked paprika and the chipotle chili powder. I also like the Turkish seasoning blend on simple sauteed vegetables. They have several different jerk seasoning blends. I like the one that is specified for fish, but I use it on lots of stuff.
  • lkpducky
    lkpducky Posts: 17,566 Member
    Northwoods for roast chicken, definitely.
  • badnoodle
    badnoodle Posts: 216 Member
    Forward is my go-to blend for most everything, but I also like their Ozark blend for meats and veggies. It tastes very American. Seconding apullum on 33rd and Galena, that's my favorite pork rib rub, or if I want BBQ flavor on a smoked chicken. I use the Greek blend frequently with tomato cucumber salad.

    I'm not crazy about their jerk seasoning though. Somehow, it's just not potent enough.

    I really wish they'd come out with a ras al-hanout blend. Kroger used to have a store brand version that I used all the time, but as with so many good things, it got discontinued, and I hate blending everything together for myself.

  • mochapygmy
    mochapygmy Posts: 2,123 Member
    Berbere on eggs!
    Berbere on veg!
    Berbere on meat!
    Berbere on fish!
    Berbere in my belly!

    The Maharaja Curry makes the best chicken salad.

    Bouquet Garni is very versatile.

    That being said I stick to individual spices these days and haven't come across one I didn't like.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    I've always enjoyed Penzey's when I've gone (a friend of mine in the burbs is near one), but I'm near a https://www.savoryspiceshop.com/ so have been impulse spice buying there.
  • kpk54
    kpk54 Posts: 4,474 Member
    My absolute favorite is their French Thyme.

    I like Chicago, Northwoods and Arizona. Vietnamese cinnamon. Their chicken soup base is good. I like their chipotle powder and smoked paprika.

    I don't care for their garam masala and have had several things from there that were mediocre so it is good you're getting recommendations.
  • apullum
    apullum Posts: 4,838 Member
    I've never seen them anywhere but their social media presence cheers me.

    They only have shops in a few major urban areas, but you can order online. I buy most of my Penzey's spices online since the closest shop is about 1.5 hours away. If you sign up for their emails, there are almost always freebies and discounts.
  • Katmary71
    Katmary71 Posts: 7,035 Member
    Thank you all for listing your favorites! I was planning on buying smoked paprika and more chipotle pepper. I have a small jar of French Thyme plus grow thyme so that may wait, though it's always used in the split pea soup I make. There's some blends you all named that I haven't tried, I'll be taking a big list! Thanks again!
  • Noreenmarie1234
    Noreenmarie1234 Posts: 7,492 Member
    I love penzeys! They always have free samples too! My favorite is fox point!
  • Lutielu
    Lutielu Posts: 188 Member
    Fox point ❤️🥰👍
  • CaffeinatedConfectionist
    CaffeinatedConfectionist Posts: 1,046 Member
    edited June 2019
    The worst thing about having moved out of Wisconsin is the lack of Penzey's stores :/

    For the most part I buy straight herbs and spices rather than blends, but I do really like their curry blends (and they have quite a few - most recently I got garam masala and rogan josh) and some of their chili powder blends. Unlike a previous poster, I do like the garam masala, though I do always supplement it with various additions of my own. They also make a nice adobo, imo. Penzey's used to make a southwest blend that I put on basically everything but they stopped making it several years ago :(
  • apullum
    apullum Posts: 4,838 Member
    edited June 2019
    I love Penzeys so much that this sticker is on my laptop. (A colleague once missed the "tasty food" part of it and was very confused.)

    41la070m7gqx.png
  • Katmary71
    Katmary71 Posts: 7,035 Member
    Oh man, I'm going to have to save and leave special room in my carry on bag for this trip! You can use the email deals in the stores for those of you that go in person. I've always wanted to get one of those huge "replace your spices and herbs" gift boxes for myself!
  • jcoff1
    jcoff1 Posts: 2,035 Member
    I love their Sunny Paris, especially with eggs! Arizona Dreaming with corn on the cob, Mignonette pepper on everything! Pay it Forward is just like Arizona Dreaming but without the heat.
    Such a fabulous company. Wish I could shop in store, but on-line will have to do.
  • JohnnytotheB
    JohnnytotheB Posts: 361 Member
    That place is great!
  • bosque1234
    bosque1234 Posts: 60 Member
    Oh I LOVE Penzey's. **Sunny Paris** is my fave. It's a mixture of dried shallots, green herbs of some sort...I use it on everything, eggs, potatoes, pasta, etc. Their paprika is fab, the vanilla, the cinnamon, garlic salt with herbs..I could go on and on.
  • workinonit1956
    workinonit1956 Posts: 1,043 Member
    Penzey’s pepper blend, Vietnamese cinnamon, roasted garlic powder, white onion powder, I love all that I’ve tried from there.
  • dulinh
    dulinh Posts: 99 Member
    Sunny Spain and Northwoods Fire on everything, especially steamed veggies. Vietnamese cinnamon. Dried peppers, especially chipotle peppers for soups and chilis, and tsien tsien in stir fry. Smoked paprika. Bold Taco Seasoning. Hot Chili Powder. Hot Curry powder. Basically everything I need spice wise, I get there. The only Italian seasoning I like is Italian Herb Mix.
  • FireOpalCO
    FireOpalCO Posts: 641 Member
    Jumping in on the love for Sunny Paris on eggs. I also like Krakow Nights on chicken.
  • slbbw
    slbbw Posts: 329 Member
    Mural of Flavor and Chile Con Carne are two of my Favorites. I also really like Arizona Dreaming and Tuscan Sunset.
  • Katmary71
    Katmary71 Posts: 7,035 Member
    Thank you everyone! I'm especially interested in the ones you've all said are good on veggies, eggs, chicken, turkey chili, and salmon. I usually use Fox Point on salmon but am willing to mix it up! I'm going to be in Penzey's for a long time with this list!
  • Katmary71
    Katmary71 Posts: 7,035 Member

    That one sounds really good. If I wasn't going there in a few weeks I'd order!
  • Noreenmarie1234
    Noreenmarie1234 Posts: 7,492 Member
    edited July 2019
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    Another freebie! http://spices.penzeys.com/07_07_19_new_hope_box.html

    If you get it in stores it is completely free, but online you'd have to pay shipping.
  • Tankiscool
    Tankiscool Posts: 11,105 Member
    Well this is cool. I've always gone to my local Penzys store and I do get their catalog, so I know it exists but I guess I never knew how far they really reached!

    Northwoods fire seasoning is my favorite!
  • maureenseel1984
    maureenseel1984 Posts: 395 Member
    I love the Jerk Seasoning. It's Money on a blackened salmon fillet. Nom nom nom.
  • earlnabby
    earlnabby Posts: 8,171 Member
    I worked for them in the corporate offices for 4 years so I got a chance to taste everything. My favorite blends unique to them:
    • California Pepper (black pepper with ground dried red and green bell pepper)
    • Regular Chili Powder
    • Pork Chop Seasoning (for anything where you want a touch of smoky flavor, Makes great homemade smokehouse almonds too)
    • Brady Street Cheese Sprinkle (great on steamed veggies)

    I use 3 of their 4 cinnamons. Vietnamese when I want a punch of flavor and heat, China when I want the flavor to blend, and Ceylon when I want cinnamon in fruit things.

    I use the Special Extra Bold black peppercorns. One mill has that and one mill has a blend I do with black peppercorns, whole allspice, coriander seeds, and Szechuan peppercorns.
  • apullum
    apullum Posts: 4,838 Member
    Katmary71 wrote: »

    That one sounds really good. If I wasn't going there in a few weeks I'd order!

    When you go to the store, you can get whatever deals or freebies they have at the time, but you may need to show an email depending on what the offer is.