Cheap vs. Pricey Spices

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Story Published: Nov 17, 2009 at 8:52 PM PDT

By Jackie Watanabe

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Chef Annamarie Macciocco counts on herbs and spices to create signature dishes for her Italian restaurant.

"A dish could be good. But a spice could make it great," Macciocco said.

But how do you choose which spices to use when the prices are all over the map? Does buying a cheaper spice mean sacrificing taste? To find out, Consumer Reports tested out two commonly used spices - oregano and cinnamon. The prices ranged from a low of 50 cents an ounce to more than $7.00.

"We wanted to see if our trained testers could taste any big differences between an expensive spice and a less expensive one," said Amy Keating of Consumer Reports

The taste testers tried the dried oregano in various recipes, including tomato sauce, and on top of bread with melted mozzarella. The cinnamon was mixed into applesauce and also baked in sugar cookies.

"The testers couldn't really taste a difference with the cinnamon sugar cookies, but in the other recipes with the pricier oregano and cinnamon, there was just slightly more flavor intensity," Keating said.

But all of the oreganos tasted like just like oregano. And all the cinnamons tasted just like cinnamon. So you don't really need to spend more unless the spice is the main attraction.

"One thing that can make a difference with some herbs and spices is if they are old," Keating said.

So unless you plan on cooking up a storm like Annamarie, it's best not to buy your spices in bulk.

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