Penzys (without an apostrophe) is a spice company out of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, that has stores in 29 states. My mom turned me on to Penzys because there’s one near her that she likes and she signed up for their catalog. After much searching, I found an order form in the center of the catalog along with a list of store locations and, as she had pointed out to me, there’s one in Rockville. Their website leaves a little to be desired – for the life of me I couldn’t find a store locator/map or an “about us” page – but I did find the store today.
My mom told me about the wonderful smell when you walk in the store and she was right. It smells like the bulk spice area in an organic foods store. The store is divided in areas like baking, soup bases, and salad seasonings, so you can go to an area and see what they have that is new to you. Then there are specialty displays, like curry powders and pepper blends. They also have gift baskets that can include things like a dish towel or t-shirt.
While I was in the store, I picked up some Hungarian-style paprika. There are sample jars of all the spices so you can smell them. The store associate said Penzys has been in business 30 years and they have spices from all over the world. In some of the international areas, they have a Penzys employee working in the fields making sure they’re getting the best spices. In some cases they may be short on getting the exact amount of a spice from a field and have to substitute a similar spice from another area. That is why, for example, the Hungarian paprika is called “Hungarian-style.”
The catalog is easy to follow because everything is in alphabetical order with quite a few recipes inserted, so it’s fun to browse.
