Burlap & Barrel’s Quality Ingredients Can Inspire Dating & Married Couples to Spice Up Their Home-Cooked Meals

The Short Version: Burlap & Barrel started as a two-person enterprise to bring ethically sourced spices to North American homes, and it has changed the way many customers prepare meals at home. Burlap & Barrel’s spices blend seamlessly into home-cooked meals and can enhance anything from a simple mac and cheese to an elegant chicken cordon bleu. With Burlap & Barrel stocking their spice rack, couples need not go out to a restaurant to indulge in restaurant-quality dinner dates.

The spring of 2020 was unprecedented by pretty much any measurement. Huge bustling cities went quiet under statewide stay-at-home orders, and restaurants had to adapt to takeout and delivery business models just to stay afloat.

During this time, there were a lot of questions about the future, and one of the most persistent and universal questions was simply: What’s for dinner?

Couples and families could no longer rely on eating out as a quick meal fix, and so a new wave of bread baking and home-cooked meals began. Traditional dinner-and-movie date nights became at-home affairs, and previously unused kitchens became hubs of entertainment, experimentation, and, most importantly of all, connection.

As a high-quality spice importer and online store, Burlap & Barrel has been a wingman for home chefs looking to bring more sophisticated and delectable flavors to the table. Its earthy, smoky, and aromatic spices have the power to make home meals just as impressive and delicious as restaurant fare.

Burlap & Barrel tantalizes the taste buds with its world-class single origin spices.

Couples don’t need to be master chefs to make flavorful and sophisticated dishes. They just need the right ingredients, and that’s what Burlap & Barrel provides.

Burlap & Barrel partners with farmers all over the world to make an array of unique spices available to home cooks in North America. From smoky paprika to tangy ground lime, these high-quality ingredients can bring fresh flavors to tried-and-true recipes, and it’s a wonderful way to spice up the modern dating scene.

By ethically sourcing many rich spices, Burlap & Barrel offers adventurous home chefs the chance to up their cooking game and create a five-star dining experience at home.

“Cooking is a good relationship test and joint activity,” said Burlap & Barrel Co-Founder Ori Zohar. “You get to know your partner in the kitchen. Are they a rule breaker or recipe follower? It’s fun to see how you work together as a team, and at the end of it, you get to eat a delicious meal.”

Burlap & Barrel’s best-selling products include many familiar names, but customers will be able to taste the difference between these farm-fresh spices and ordinary grocery-store spices. Ori recommends that new Burlap & Barrel customers use half the amount of spice they’d typically add to a recipe because Royal Cinnamon and Wild Mountain Cumin pack a bigger punch than their traditional counterparts.

The Royal Cinnamon is the crowning achievement of generations of Vietnamese farmers in the mountains of Quang Nam. These farms harvest their cinnamon from trees that have been growing for over 20 years, and that’s what makes the flavor profile so rich and powerful.

“It tastes almost like Big Red gum,” Ori explained. “It’s intensely sweet and spicy with no added sugar.”

This complex and slightly spicy ingredient has been cured in the sun in Urfa, Turkey.

Burlap & Barrel has gone around the world to find uncommonly delicious spices. Black Urfa Chili is a staple in Turkey, but Western consumers often haven’t heard of it before finding it in Burlap & Barrel’s store. Farmers cure red peppers in the sun for several days before grinding and mixing them with sea salt and sunflower seed oil to keep the Black Urfa Chili from drying out.

The result is an aromatic black spice that can bring a hint of heat and sophistication to fried eggs, pasta, chicken, and other dishes.

Another crowd pleaser is Ground Black Lime, which is a uniquely tangy spice from Guatemala. Its tart flavor profile goes well with vegetables, chicken, fish, or anything you’d add lime juice to. Its bright citrus notes can make a simple soup or margarita really pop.

Ground Black Lime isn’t a typical home-chef ingredient, but Ori tells us that it’s easy to mix into any cooking routine. “Most people haven’t cooked with it in the past, but once they start, they find it’s completely intuitive,” he said.

Whether they’re making sticky cinnamon buns or a savory chicken rub, dating couples can count on Burlap & Barrel to add a mouthwatering and memorable flavor to their favorite dishes.

Ethan Frisch got a taste for the restaurant business by working in kitchens in New York City and London, and he partnered with his friend Ori Zohar to start an ice cream shop called Guerrilla Ice Cream in 2010. Years later, Ethan threw out the traditional recipe book and became a humanitarian aid worker with a passion for social change and conflict resolution.

His work took him to Afghanistan, Jordan, Syria, and other places that changed how he looked at the world — and how he looked at food. During his travels, Ethan encountered spices he’d never heard of before. He introduced some of his new favorite spices to his chef friends back home and got rave reviews.

Two seasoned professionals and good friends started Burlap & Barrel in 2016.

Ethan saw an opportunity to disrupt the food supply chain by bringing unique international spices directly to consumers. So he called up his friend Ori and asked if he was game to join the venture as a Co-Founder.

Ori jumped on the project and took the lead on forming an ecommerce business strategy and creating retailer relationships. Ori ran the finance side, while Ethan found exceptional spice suppliers all over the world. In 2016, Burlap & Barrel was born.

“We wanted to bring high-quality and flavorful spices to home cooks in the U.S. and Canada,” Ori told us. “We work with farmers to make this happen, and we send as much money as possible directly to the farmers.”

Ethical sustainable sourcing is at the heart of Burlap & Barrel’s core mission. Ori and Ethan make a point to offer family-run farms higher return rates than they do from standard commodity prices and pass the profits onto the farmers that make excellent ingredients. To date, Burlap & Barrel has paid its partner farmers over $300,000.

“We started the business as two people with an idea. For the first year, all our spices were packed in the living room of Ethan’s apartment,” Ori recalled. “We had no idea how much the business would grow, and we’re really grateful each day for the home cooks who have supported us.”

Over the years, Burlap & Barrel has attracted a good mix of experienced home chefs and novice cooks. Some of them don’t have easy access to a grocery store or farmers market, and others are hoping to replicate their favorite restaurant dishes at home. Whatever their reason for shopping for spices online, Burlap & Barrel customers share a taste for adventure and are always up for trying something new.

The Burlap & Barrel website helps guide newcomers to a great culinary experience by offering plenty of informational resources and taste profile descriptions. Its community recipes list is constantly growing, as is the Spotify Cooking Playlist — which can really help set the mood for couples in the kitchen.

Burlap & Barrel’s dynamic community inspires couples to get the most from their cooking.

Burlap & Barrel is powered by a community of ardent foodies who enjoy swapping kitchen hacks and brainstorming new flavor combinations. Ori said Burlap & Barrel’s private Facebook group has been a key ingredient to its success because it helps bring new customers into the fold and equip them for success. The group has over 2,400 members who come together to share recipes, ask questions, and get ideas for their next kitchen adventure.

“If you’ve never had curried crab, you’ve got to give it a try,” said Susan S. in a discussion post. “Great way to end our beach getaway. Lots of B&B cumin in this curry!”

Some satisfied customers have said Burlap & Barrel has broadened their taste horizons and introduced them to powerful flavors they hadn’t encountered before. It can be an overwhelming sensory experience, and it’s a great thing to share with a romantic partner.

“Trying Burlap & Barrel up against the generic brands I had in my spice cabinet was one of those suddenly-I-see-in-technicolor moments,” said food writer Margaret Eby in “Food and Wine.”

Burlap & Barrel encourages customers to savor every meal and never compromise when it comes to flavor. Whether they’re spicing up a curry sauce or adding a dash of sweetness to a dessert, home chefs can use Burlap & Barrel to make their favorite recipes (and their dating experiences) even more memorable and enjoyable.

Lucia B. said cooking with Burlap & Barrel’s spices gives her a feeling of nostalgia for the dishes she had while living abroad. “[It] reminds me of my travels, and I can share the flavors with loved ones,” she wrote. “My fiancé and I love to cook together as well. It’s a perfect way to get to know each other in the kitchen.”

Burlap & Barrel’s spices offer an easy way to transform a simple home-cooked dish into a restaurant-quality meal, and it’s great for impressing a person you’re dating. Just a dash of cinnamon, cumin, or chili can immediately elevate a dish and turn it into something special.

Looking to the future, Ori and Ethan intend to continue supporting small, independent farms and making it easy for people to integrate top-quality spices into their cooking. The founders are currently working on expanding their spice rack to include more salty and sugary ingredients that meet the needs of modern home chefs.

“Spices are worth investing in because of how they can kick up your cooking in so many delicious ways,” Ori said. “Once you start using Burlap & Barrel, people will be asking for your recipes and wondering what your secret is. You don’t have to tell them it’s because of your spices, but you’ll know.”