THE SPICE IS RIGHT

Amanda Chater

Travel truly has become the spice of life among American consumers.

That's good news for supermarkets' spice aisles, which can be a resource for home chefs looking to replicate the exotic dishes they have encountered on foreign soil.

"In the past two years, spices have just exploded, and the hot stuff is kicking in," said Nat Caputo, special projects manager of Caputo's, a four-store upscale supermarket chain in Addison, Ill., where cayenne pepper, crushed red pepper, chili pepper and curry powder are among the best sellers. "More people are trying their hand at more home-cooked meals and dabbling in different dishes."

Many retailers who spoke to SN are trying to cultivate customer interest in spices by educating shoppers in their use.

Big Y Foods in Springfield, Mass., carries tip cards from McCormick & Co. in its spice aisle. "We feature cooking advice and change the cards every six months, with the changing seasons," said John Corcoran, grocery category manager. Last month, for example, the stores carried six seafood recipes that included spices to coincide with National Seafood Month. The retailer also runs recipes including spices in its ad to stimulate interest.

Big Y also uses education to drive sales. It recently hired a nutritionist and will soon feature nutritional information on spices in its ad and her column in the retailer's in-store magazine. The chain also covers cooking with spices in the nine educational books it publishes annually.

McCaffrey's in Yardley, Pa., takes a hands-on approach to selling spices. The store runs cooking demonstrations twice a week, with recipes and ingredients at the ready. Sales of spices always spike on these days, said Brian Marchand, grocery manager.

Consumption of herbs, spices and seasonings has doubled in the United States in the past 20 years to over 1 billion pounds in 2003, McCormick stated in a report, Flavor Forecast 2005. Fueling this growth are hot spices including red pepper, whose consumption grew 233%, and ginger, up 256%, the company said. Other spices that have seen huge consumption leaps are cardamon (up 657%), coriander (110%) and cumin (126%).

"I believe it largely comes from restaurants," said Laurie Harrsen, director of public relations for McCormick, the leading spice company. "Consumers are tasting a lot of different flavors and get used to it and want them at home."

In addition to drawing attention to the spice section itself, many retailers are putting spices in secondary displays to encourage impulse buys.

Big Y places hot spices such as chili and paprika in its Mexican section. At one-store Ted's IGA in Hebron, Conn., Indian spices such as curry powder, coriander and cumin are found in the international section in addition to the spice aisle, for example.

"Chili powder is still the No. 1 spice, but Indian and other Mexican spices are gaining in popularity," Ted's owner Todge Armata said.

Scolari's Food & Drug stores in California and Nevada do 75% to 80% of their spice business from the regular spice aisle, but suction-cup trays are used to cross merchandise spices in different departments, buyer Steve Dickson said.

Retailers can heed what's happening in food service, since food trends that start there usually trickle down to supermarkets.

Chilies are among the spices that are exploding in popularity, said Elton Reid, chef and director of fresh food operations for the six Food Circus Supermarket stores in Middletown, N.J.

People are looking for more flavor, rather than just heat, he said. "It's all about the combination of flavors, the layers of flavors." He's also seeing more fusion of cuisines from different parts of the world, such as Mexico and the Caribbean.

Manufacturers are responding to the increased interest in spicy food. This year, McCormick introduced Latin American seasonings including sazon, a staple seasoning blend; chili with lime seasoning; and annatto.

The Spice Hunter in St. Luis Obispo, Calif., is giving mainstay seasonings a kick. The company recently launched a spicy version of its garlic bread seasoning that includes red pepper, paprika, cayenne pepper, cumin and ginger. The company also fired up its lemon-pepper seasoning with coriander and black pepper and its key lime pepper seasoning with habanero chilies.

Women ages 35 to 60 are the predominant buyers of these spices, said Tim Anderson, director of marketing for The Spice Hunter. "It tends to be people who either have had kids in the home or who have older kids -- people who have time to experiment with cooking."

Reid believes that consumers will see more blends of spices in the near future. Blends bring ease and success to the home chef by providing more convenient and authentic flavors. "Sometimes just a dash of these blends over a piece of grilled chicken can make a huge difference," he said. "It's different [from] what you saw in the past, when foods were just hot and had lots of salt."

Organic Flavor

Spices aren't cheap, yet as the robust sales of organic spices show, shoppers are willing to pay even more for their organic versions.

Dollar sales of the top 25 fastest-growing organic seasonings grew 27.7% in the year ended Oct. 8, while the top 25 non-organic spices grew just 3.4% in the same period, according to ACNielsen. Among the fast-growing organics are cumin, up 50% for the year ended Oct. 8 vs. the year prior; cilantro, up 34%; and paprika, increasing 12%.

Two predominant customer groups seek these products, said Kora Rush, organic category manager at United Supermarkets in Lubbock, Texas. One is the organic customer who wants to maintain the integrity of his or her diet. The other is the customer who sees organic spices as having a flavor truer to the original plant.

"Customers like these because they seem to be a better cut or grade," Rush said. "They make an assumption that it's a better product; it's not just that it's organic."

Organic spices are integrated with non-organic spices at United Supermarkets and are available in the retailer's private-label line, Simply Organic, and McCormick & Co. organics.

Simply Organic spices are sold in glass jars and small, plastic containers and tend to be priced higher than non-organics, Rush said. The line includes chili powder, coriander and curry powder.

Four-store Caputo's in Addison, Ill., plans to launch a line of private-label organic spices in early December to appeal to health-conscious customers. The organic spices could be twice as expensive, but there are people who will pay that, said Ned Caputo, special projects manager for the upscale chain.

The retailer plans to start with organic versions of its best-selling regular varieties, including chili powder and curry power, and expand the line from there. -- AMANDA CHATER

Fresh Is Key

Many hot spices owe their popularity to Hispanic culture. But marketing spices to ethnic customers calls for its own approach.

Freshness is important to Mexican consumers, said Paul Mena, senior category manager for Hispanic at Tree of Life, the specialty food distributor.

Bagged spices are better than bottled, because customers can touch them. Retailers also should sell spices in bags from the produce department, he advised. "Mexicans tend to add chili powder to almost everything they eat, including fruit. The first thing they do is spoon chili powder over their fruit, particularly chili powder with lemon or lime infused into it, so it's a nice way to cross merchandise."

Retailers should know their Hispanic customers' countries of origin, because spice preferences vary from one to the other, Mena said. Mexicans like hot foods, and chilies feature prominently in their cuisine. Caribbean Hispanics, meanwhile, prefer to add layers of flavor.

To cater to its Hispanic customers, four-store Caputo's in Addison, Ill., carries Goya spices in addition to its private-label spice line, La Bella Romana, and cross merchandises them with other Hispanic items, such as meats.

"We use this brand because [Hispanics] don't really recognize what we're trying to do with La Bella Romana," said Nat Caputo, special projects manager at the upscale grocery chain.

Big Y Foods, Springfield, Mass., also sells Goya spices in its Hispanic section. While price plays a big role in Anglos' spice brand choice, said John Corcoran, grocery category manager, "Hispanics prefer [Goya-brand spices] because they know them." -- AMANDA CHATER