Rachel Walker founded Rooted Spices in 2018 in London and said:
“I’d been watching the pace of change in the coffee and chocolate industries – and figured it was time that spices caught up.”
Rooted Spices started round Rachel’s kitchen table, with a singular aim. To find the best tasting spices possible. She wanted to bridge the gap between those fragrant bags of spices you pick up at overseas markets and the dusty, decades-old jars found at the back of British spice cupboards.
Rachel and the team are an amazing independent business down the road in Hackney, London.
We are really pleased to join forces on this collaboration blend. The blend of Urfa Chilli and Sumac will spice up your brunch: sprinkle over eggs, avo toast, cream cheese bagels. These flavours pair particularly well with coffee.
So why spice and coffee?
When we look at coffee we associate certain flavours with certain regions, altitudes, roast profiles, all things that can affect the flavour of coffee in many ways. Flavour notes are a compelling part when roasting, farming and buying coffee. This is very similar to the process with spices, It’s all about the flavour, so why not pair them together.
This combination was designed to enhance both the Black Urfa pepper, ground sumac and coffee. All combined creates a great mix of flavours.
We spoke to Rachel to discuss how spices are selected for their range:
“ In terms of trying spices we narrow it down to countries that have famously good growing conditions, the best climate, the best terra, the best local expertise for harvesting them. Then we started calling in samples, for example with cumin we had about 40 different samples. We then made a big pan of lentils or rice and then we did our own little tasting, that you might have with wine tasting, or coffee tasting and put marks aside for appearance, the nose, the taste, how it changed, how it grew.”
Let's talk about the brunch blend:
“ In Britain it’s just salt and pepper that you see on the table but in so many other countries the range of finishing spices is so fast and so varied, it’s such an easy way of adding flavour, I mean you don’t need to be a great cook to add a pinch of sumac on a salad but it’s going to totally transform your salad from being an everyday tomato salad to being a really delicious one, that’s got this whole new flavour profile of sharp, lemony tangy ness.”
We have been really enjoying the brunch blend as a finishing touch to our food, whether it’s breakfast or dinner.
Avocado toast, salmon, mushrooms and poached eggs with a finishing touch of the brunch blend
For your share of spice and coffee, you can buy the brunch blend here or perhaps you need some coffee to accompany that meal then try our
