Which Penzey’s Spices to get?

[vanillacourage]

I want to get at least a few of these for my dad as a Christmas present, preferably blends or things that are unique to Penzey’s (as opposed to like, cinnamon). He lives by himself and cooks small portions, mostly dinners, and he’s very health-conscious. Any recommendations on individual bottles or boxed sets?

[2curlydogs]

Get their spices that are the Milwaukee neighborhood ones

Brady Street Cheese Sprinkle
Fox Point Seasoning
Galena Street Chickne & Rib Rub
Mitchell Street Steak Seasoning
Northwoods Seasoning (or Northwoods Fire Seasoning if he likes spice) - I have a great chicken stew recipe for this
Old World Seasoning
Ruth Ann's Muskego Ave Chicken/Fish Seasoning

[picksthemusic]

Mural of Flavor, hands down. And everything that 2curlydogs said.

[snshne322]

I love the Shallot Pepper and I use their taco seasonings.

[Vespasia]

I use a ton of their individual spices but the blends I use most are:
Turkish Seasoning
Northwoods
Mitchell Street Steak
Pasta Sprinkle

[tripleshot]

I love sandwich sprinkle on salads and sandwiches. I also use the frozen pizza seasoning, taco seasoning, pepper, and season salt. Mural of flavor, Arizona dreaming, and roasted garlic are also good. I think they have a grill box with good seasonings for meat. Or maybe one of the bigger gift boxes would have a good variety of everything, instead of buying them individually.

[katieinthecity]

Taco seasoning
Mural of flavor
Sunny Paris
Tsardust

[mbcdefg]

I was coming in to suggest the Vietnamese Cinnamon (which I like way better than their regular cinnamon), before I saw your disclaimer, lol.

[mrsukyankee]

And now I've ordered two gift packs for my brother & sister-in-law for Christmas. Thank you for posting vanillacourage!

[persa]

Sunny Paris or fox point are delish. They're like Shallot Pepper but with more herb stuff.

They have the best Lemon pepper, we buy the giant bag of it. My kids will eat their weight in green beans or broccoli if it has Penzeys Lemon Pepper (aka "sprinkles") on it. It has salt but they have a have a salt free version called Sunny Spain (totes different from Sunny Paris).

We also like the BBQ 3000 as a quick and easy flavoring.

[pugz]

love their taco seasoning!

[MrsAxilla]

My mom is on a low sodium diet so last year I got her the smaller salt-free set. She LOVED it! This year I'm going to get the bigger set.

[vanillacourage]

Hmmmm, I wish they had an option to choose your own 4 or 8 spices. None of the existing boxed sets have everything I’d like to get. Still browsing!

[munkii]

vanillacourage, they do! It's not a fun box, but it fits 4 or 8 in it.

www.penzeys.com/online-catalog/do-it-yourself-4-jar-gift-box/c-24/p-1599/pd-gb

[picksthemusic]

Ditto the taco seasoning - it's my favorite, and my kids love it too (and my Mexican husband who hates taco seasoning blends!). You really can't go wrong with anything in that store.

[lilibet]

The Smokey 4/S Special Seasoned Sea Salt is really good.

[vanillacourage]

FYI they’re running a special - $50 gc’s for $35, if anyone needs to stock up. 

[pugz]

vanillacourage if you make it over to downtown OP sometime you should come check out the Penzys store! It is super cute and they are really helpful.

[lilac05]

I honestly have never had something I didn’t like. Even the basic stuff is better than what I buy in the store. Funny you mention cinnamon. I had two different brands of cinnamon in the house when I bought some Penzey’s. I always thought cinnamon was cinnamon. I was wrong! It smells & tastes so different! Then there was the time I opened the Smoked Paprika and was surprised that it smelled so...smoky. LOL.

If he likes sandwiches & salads, the sandwich sprinkle is amazing!

Fox Point (excellent on eggs and everything else) and Northwoods are the two I think we have emptied the fastest.

I actually credit a good share of my weight loss to Penzey’s because I now prefer eating a sandwich or grilled chicken breast at home over going out somewhere.

[pantsparty]

I love Fox Point - just had it on some scrambled eggs this morning. Yum. Also great on chicken. It's addictive.

I'd love to know how people use Mural of Flavor? I have a big jar but have barely touched it.

I'm going to buy some minced garlic and minced ginger next. I have the shallots and I like having those on hand as a replacement instead of buying shallots.

[tacoflavoredkisses]

Bicentennial was incredible on our turkey this year.

Aleppo pepper is amazing on pizza.

[pantsparty]

I bought 2 gift cards so I also got the Kind gift box plus cinnamon with the code 43537. I love that I always get something extra when I order with them!

[madDawg228]

Mural of Flavor
Fox Point or Sunny Paris (I find people usually prefer one or the other, they are similar imo)
Sandwich Sprinkle
Frozen Pizza Seasoning (if he's lazy like me and buys frozen pizzas sometimes)
Garam Masala (really nice Indian seasoning: coriander, black pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, kalonji, caraway, cloves, ginger and nutmeg)
Pico Fruta (a little spicy sweet mix, good for fruit salads or anything with fruit)

[picksthemusic]

Ooooh, I thought of two more:

Pico Fruta (spicy/sweet blend to go on fruit like pineapple, peaches, mango, watermelon)
Salad Elegant - it's a knockoff of my uncle's company's Salad Elegance blend, and theirs is SO MUCH BETTER. LOL I use it on buttered toast, salads, and deviled eggs.

[StrawberryBlondie]

Berbere.

Their fox point is great. I love Mural of Flavor. Their chili powder is delish.

But the berbere is something special.

[TBM]

Dec 5, 2018 18:41:55 GMT -5 pantsparty said:

I'd love to know how people use Mural of Flavor? I have a big jar but have barely touched it.

I think Mural of Flavor is our most used blend. I use it on roasted or sauteed vegetables, fish, and if I ate chicken, I would probably use it on that.

[Vespasia]

Dec 5, 2018 18:06:28 GMT -5 lilac05 said:

Then there was the time I opened the Smoked Paprika and was surprised that it smelled so...smoky. LOL.

Hah, I opened my spice drawer for cumin earlier and took a whiff of my (Penzeys) smoked paprika just for the hell of it. I love it so much.

[StrawberryBlondie]

Dec 5, 2018 18:41:55 GMT -5 pantsparty said:

I love Fox Point - just had it on some scrambled eggs this morning. Yum. Also great on chicken. It's addictive.

I'd love to know how people use Mural of Flavor? I have a big jar but have barely touched it.

Just start putting it in stuff. It's good on basically everything.

[picksthemusic]

Dec 5, 2018 18:41:55 GMT -5 pantsparty said:

I love Fox Point - just had it on some scrambled eggs this morning. Yum. Also great on chicken. It's addictive.

I'd love to know how people use Mural of Flavor? I have a big jar but have barely touched it.

I'm going to buy some minced garlic and minced ginger next. I have the shallots and I like having those on hand as a replacement instead of buying shallots.

I use it in my soups (chicken/turkey/whatever) and it has this something in it that makes it amazing.

[wildrice]

If you were giving a box set of these spices to someone, would you give something with it? If so, what?

I am considering getting one for my parents, but I want to give them something a bit more than just a box of spices (which is a lovely gift on its own, but I had planned to spend 2-3x what one costs on their gift).