World of Spices

• 5911 S. Westnedge Avenue
• Portage, MI 49002
• (269) 381-2913
• No Known Website

My spice cabinet is pretty full.  It takes up almost a full cabinet in my undersized kitchen.  When my family was in town to help us move, my brother opened up the cabinet and his jaw hit the floor.  He’d never seen that many spices before and has no idea what to do with most of them.  Obviously, if I was buying all these spices at a grocery store, I’d be paying through the roof. 

When we lived in Lansing, I had a great place to stock up.  There was a place called American International Bulk Foods which sold all sorts of spices in bulk which made it much, much cheaper.  My hope is that I can find something similar here in Kalamazoo.

My first attempt at finding a new spice outlet was at World of Spices on South Westnedge in Portage.  It’s a tiny store that claims “Authentic Spices” on their sign.  Upon further inspection, it’s also an Indian grocery store, so when I actually made time to stop, I didn’t have high hopes.

There were no cars in the parking lot when I pulled in, but the “open” sign was lit.  There was a man walking down from the next store which looks to be a sister business.  The sign on the door of World of Spices says to go next door if the door is locked during business hours.  He stopped right in front of the door to talk to a guy who was coming out of the spice store.  I just stopped.  I couldn’t tell if they were open or what.  The guy blocking the door finally saw me standing about two feet from him and told me to come in. 

The first thing I noticed once inside is that World of Spices is not a bulk spice store.  All the spices are prepackaged in large bags.  There are bins along the wall that remind me of cubby’s in a kindergarten class.  I had to sort of pull bags out of the cubby’s to see what each one was and I quickly learned that World of Spices is mostly spices used in Indian cuisine. 

Still, there was some hope.  I don’t use a lot of the spices that are commonly associated with Indian cuisine, but there are some spices used in Indian cooking that make appearances in other parts of the world.

The thing I was really in the market for was some whole cumin.  Since I usually buy in bulk from bins, I try to buy whole spices and grind them in a coffee grinder when I need them.  You know the spices aren’t very fresh, but waiting to grind helps some. 

They did have a couple different bags of cumin which made me happy.  I picked up the smaller of the two bags which was still a seven ounce bag that will last me for quite a while.  The bill was just under $2.50.  I looked at Meijer last night and a one ounce jar cost closer to $5.00.

World of Spices isn’t really my thing, but if you’re into Indian cooking, this place could be a life saver.  They have a lot of unique spices and grains that I’ve never seen anywhere else and things you definitely can’t get at your local mega mart.  Unfortunately, it’s still not what I’m looking.  For now, I’ll just have to take a shopping list with me when I head back to the Lansing area.