The faces on the Just Spices pots

Let us take you back in time, to an evening with good friends, and an Indian recipe that gave our three founders, Florian, Ole and Béla, the idea for Just Spices. By designing ready-mixed spice blends, we wanted to bring more flavour into the world – and your kitchen. Our ethos at Just Spices is to use natural ingredients to help make cooking really easy and the food irresistibly delicious. To achieve this, Florian, Ole and Béla went on a round-the-world trip in 2014. You can read more about that here, but for now, let’s focus on the faces on the Just Spices pots.

The story behind the illustrations

In 2014, our three founders went on a round-the-world trip – and as well as the aromas on the streets of India, the smoke of American BBQ and the spiciness of Mexican food, the three friends fondly remember all the people they met on the trip. It is thanks to these wonderful characters that we were able to make our spice blends and mixes what they are today. Our goal was – and still is – to bring ready-mixed, balanced spice blends to your kitchen. You don’t need hundreds of different little spice packets cluttering up your kitchen, just our specially selected spice mixtures. We also provide high-quality individual spices – but even these would not be what they are today without the people we met along the way.

For these reasons you will find illustrations of the respective encounters on each of our cans. However, there are not just faces behind the pictures. They embody their cooking skills, their cuisine and their unique personality. In this blog article we want to take you a bit with us and briefly introduce you to some of these personalities.

Our trip to Mexico and Rocio’s irresistible guacamole

In Mexico, in a small town on the Caribbean coast, we got to know Rocio: a Mexican woman as one would imagine. She is small, but full of passion and joie de vivre. All the way to the local market, she smiles and can't stop talking about ingredients, recipes and experiences. We hear about tortilla, quesedilla, and tequila. No matter what Rocio tells about, you can tell her love for her culture immediately. Once we arrive in her red-tiled kitchen, we are already busy cutting tomatoes, hollowing out one avocado after the next and testing chilies – one hotter than the next! It doesn't take long before we realize that you really always need limes.

Because without limes, the homemade guacamole turns brown quickly and tastes only half as good. After a few spoonfuls of tasting, we finally have it: the tastiest guacamole. Rocio is known for precisely that in her hometown, and rightly so! We have never eaten so many tortillas with guacamole and that's why we dedicate our Avocado Topping to Rocio.

Italy’s best pasta creations from Lucia

How could we have left Italy without visiting an authentic Mamma? Exactly, not at all! And that's how we met Lucia. Her “Pasta alla Lucia” convinced us from the first bite. How can a pasta be so aromatic, creamy and simply delicious? In the kitchen of her restaurant, in which she only cooks on request, she lets us in on her secret recipe for the best Neapolitan pasta. She scurries around in the kitchen between pots and pans and keeps checking that her son is explaining everything to us correctly. Her white cap is already blowing slightly as she adds more ingredients to the saucepan. After a lot of tasting and countless stories about choosing the right tomatoes, adding the different spices and the Italian tradition, it is finished: the best Neapolitan pasta. Béla is even given the honor of adding the basil to the pasta. How could we not have represent Lucia on one of our bestsellers, the Italian Allrounder? It makes many kitchens more colorful and tasty today.

Parvita‘s impressive Indian cuisine

From Italy to India? Of course, we didn't do it without stopping, but now we would like to tell you about Parvita, because she is very well-known for her good Indian cuisine. We met her in Bangalore, where she showed us how chicken curry is prepared in the traditional “Malaber” way. As soon as we stepped into her kitchen, a wide variety of smells enveloped us: Curry, turmeric, coriander and other spices. Parvita – the passionate cook that she is – asked us if we’ve ever tried chicken curry in a traditional way. As soon as we mumbled “no”, she started preparing the kitchen and took out chicken and like a thousand spices and ingredients. We have to admit that we saw many of these ingredients for the very first time, but Parvita proudly told us exactly what we needed to do. Today, our Curry Madras is not only dedicated to the lovely Indian woman, but will also help you to make the most delicious chicken curry right in your kitchen.

Fiery hot Mexican food with Maria 

Could you leave Mexico without visiting the beautiful seaside of Tulum? With its crystal-clear water and white sand beaches, Tulum is a dream itself. Luckily, we had the chance to meet a local cook in Tulum as well: Maria is famous for her perfect tender pork tacos. She makes over 100 of them per day, isn’t that crazy? Of course, we not only had to try her pork tacos, but we also had to ask her for the recipe – and most important the right spices.

We still remember the lovely Maria standing in the kitchen of the restaurant and telling us about the best chillies, pepper and Mexican cuisine. With a smile on her lips, she prepares everything for the tender pork tacos and takes her time to explain every single step to us. Maria is the inspiration for our Mexican Allrounder which includes every spice you need for authentic Mexican food.

What story will you tell us?

Perhaps you will soon be the owner of their spice blends and will travel to distant countries in your kitchen. Then you go shopping for fresh herbs at the market with Rocio yourself, chop chilli and stir your guacamole. You have the loving Lucia on your wooden spoon and sprinkle the Italian Allrounder in your pasta sauce. Together with Parvita you will cook spicy Indian recipes and enjoy fiery hot Mexican food – just like Maria.