Tried bulk-bin spices for a month and one ruined my soup

I was at WinCo last month and grabbed a bag of their bulk bay leaves for like 60 cents. Felt good about saving money until my lentil soup tasted like I dumped a whole pine tree in it. Turns out those leaves were super old and way too strong. Had to toss the whole pot, which cost me about $8 in ingredients. Now I’m wondering if anyone else has had bad luck with bulk spices or if I just picked the wrong batch. Do you stick to name brands for certain things?

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aaronlee3mo ago

Funny you mention WinCo, I've actually had good luck with their bulk bay leaves specifically. I buy them pretty often and the trick I learned is to crush one first and smell it before you put it in anything. If it's super pungent like you described, just use half of what you normally would. I also started keeping my bulk spices in the freezer after one batch of cumin went stale on me way too fast. The cold really helps lock in freshness for the longer lasting stuff like bay leaves and whole peppercorns.

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thomas.piper3mo ago

And @aaronlee that freezer tip is gold too, I started doing that with my whole spices after reading it somewhere and it's made a huge difference with stuff like bay leaves and cloves staying potent way longer than they used to in the cabinet.

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