Refreshed Spice Jars

Old Spices – Old Labels

When a reminder about replacing your old spices (about every 6 months or so) came out on the Post Punk Kitchen Facebook page on December 28th, Jim had a good chuckle. We were already in the midst of discarding old spices, washing our spice jars and totally renaming all of the spices.

That’s right, renaming our spices. Because the old McCormick spice jar labels are paper based, we decided to design new water-proof ones to encourage regular cleaning. I decided if we were redesigning them, it was a great time to keep our lives full of fun and rename them all too!

It became a project over the holidays and enlisted Arron and Amy’s help in coming up with creative names. I didn’t want to have the traditional “snips and snails and puppy dog tails” nor “eye of newt” magical ingredients. The idea was to have crazy names but none that would every infer harm, even to mythical beasts.

Between the 4 of us, we came up with over 60 names for our almost 50 herbs and spices that we regularly use. Terrific ideas like Spiced Mojo, Seeds of Truth and Sowbug Jokes took the place of Whole Cloves, Anise Seed and Cumin Seed.

Cutting out the new waterproof labels.

We washed all of the jars and lids, peeled off the old labels then replaced any old herbs and spices with new. We decided to get rid of the Marjoram because we rarely used it. The same went for Lemon Peel since we zest and freeze what we use rather than nasty dried stuff. That and the double jars we had of Fennel Seed allowed us to swap in a few spices that we had in an overflow drawer.

After the new labels were designed, names chosen to represent specific herbs, labels printed, cut out and applied, difference in overall appearance is wonderful. I am so excited to have jars that I can wash off easily without being afraid of ruining the labels.

Detail of some new names.

If you think it will be confusing as to remembering what spice is what new name, I have to admit that it is a bit. We did, however, print the name of the contents in a smaller font to make clear what was inside. At first glance it looks as if the names are in no order at all but we have kept them in alphabetical order of contents Agar-Agar being first and White Pepper being last even though it looks like Ice Feathers leads the list and The Twitch is the last of the spices.

Even with those precautions, the spices have shifted a bit from what I was used to. Yesterday I sprinkled some Ground Cloves on some corn chips I was baking, thinking it was Chili Powder. It keeps life fresh and makes us smile. I am thinking it will be no time at all until I will be able to tell the Cuddled Imaginaries from the Dragon Sighs.

New spices, new labels.