The Spicery is an award-winning recipe kit business based in Bristol. It was started in 2003 by James Ransome, who was inspired by a wander around the spice markets during a trip to Marrakech, and then opened his own stall in Green Park market in Bath. He could quickly see there’s huge enthusiasm in the UK for cooking with spices, but as a former chef he also knew they can be a bit intimidating, complicated to use, and potentially disastrous if added in the wrong proportions (plus you never seem to have the right one to hand when you need it!).
From that moment, our aim at the Spicery has always been to make it easy for everyone to create fantastic food from around the world using our special bespoke spice blends and simple recipes. Nothing gives us more satisfaction than our customers discovering something new and delicious, then saying... “WOW, I can’t believe I made that!”.
From inventing the world’s first recipe kit subscription way back in 2005, to creating unique cookbook kits with bespoke original spice blends, we’re always experimenting and developing exciting new products to make it easier for everyone to cook fabulous spicy food at home.
We also try to reflect that sense of fun and excitement by using the colours, fabrics and textures you see when travelling around the spice-producing countries - all those bright yellows, blues and reds painted on buildings with lots of hand-drawn illustrations full of energy and character. We hope you join us, and share some of that colour, joy and fantastic flavour in your own homes!
Happy Spicing!
Timeline
Now!
We've been getting crafty at Spicery HQ and have launched a series of hand-illustrated magnets, postcards and tote bags! Watch this space for more ...
2025
We’ve recently passed the lunar new year, and it's now the 'Year of the Snake', but you could say that 2024/25 has been more like the 'Year of the Swan’ at Spicery HQ! From the outside it might have looked like we were just calmly cruising along with nothing major happening, but in fact behind the scenes we’ve all been extremely busy cooking, designing, photographing, editing, grinding, blending, unloading, packing and assembling to produce what might just be our biggest ever project... Noodle Legend!
2020-2024
The Covid years… with everyone being stuck at home we had a huge increase of orders through this period but 7 day working weeks kept everything running smoothly and all your orders still going out on time!
2017-2018
We link up with Mencap and Workfit (a charity that helps find work placements for young people with Downs Syndrome for which we won a national award from BASE), and launch our first book - How to be a Curry Legend. The concept of 4 spice blends being combined to make any recipe is one that James had many years before when noticing that so many of the spice blends he was making had similar component ingredients, just in different proportions, so 4 base blends could be combined to have a similar effect
2014-2016
We move to our current premises in Bristol and host Open Days and dinners on-site. We have our first Jobswap week (where all the staff swap roles for a day to learn about each others jobs), become SALSA certified (to guarantee the highest level of food safety), and also start a partnership with Refugee Action where refugee volunteers come in and cook dishes from home with us in return for our donations to the charity (over £20,000 donated to date)
2009-2013
We take on our first full-time member of staff and become Living Wage certified. We slowly add more of the tiny units in our estate until finally we’re operating out of 4 garages with 2 additional shipping containers out in the car park.
2004-2006
James takes the plunge and commits full-time to the business. He moves out of his bedroom to our first ‘warehouse’ (a 500 sq ft garage in Bath). He starts the first market stall on a Saturday in Green Park market using manilla wage envelopes and brown parcel paper as packaging because he didn’t have enough money for ‘proper’ packaging but nobody seemed to mind too much…
2003
James starts the business in his bedroom (he was sleeping on the living room floor at the time) with £5000 of his own money which went on a few sacks of spices, some gripseal bags and a little electric grinder. Sambava Spices (as we were called then) is born!
Recent Travels
TAIWAN: A Hidden Gem for Street Food and Noodle Lovers
TAIWAN: A Hidden Gem for Street Food and Noodle Lovers
TAIWAN: A Hidden Gem for Street Food and Noodle Lovers
|Joan
In this blog, we explore Taiwan, an island located in East Asia and famous for its night markets filled with neon lights, noise, and a mix of aromas coming from...
