The spice catalogue.

Intensity 3/5 · Heat 2/5

Earthy and faintly fermented, with a heat that arrives late and stays. Invisible in pale sauces, which is exactly the point.

Intensity 3/5 · Heat 2/5

Colour first — deep lacquer red — then dried fruit and warmth. Use it generously; the heat stays polite.

Intensity 3/5 · Heat 2/5

Soft, slightly oily flakes with a sun-dried fruit sweetness. The single best chilli to keep on the table.

Intensity 4/5 · Heat 2/5

Almost black, faintly damp, smelling of raisins and wood smoke. It tastes more like dried fruit than fire.

Intensity 3/5 · Heat 2/5

Dried poblano — raisin, cocoa and a soft, mild warmth. The backbone of a good chilli pot.

Intensity 4/5 · Heat 3/5

Smoked and dried jalapeño — proper wood smoke, earth and a medium heat that lingers.

Intensity 5/5

Dried over open fires, so it arrives smoky and resinous. Nothing like green cardamom despite the name — this one belongs in savoury pots.

Intensity 4/5

Toast for ninety seconds and the whole kitchen changes. Earthy, warm and faintly citrus.

Intensity 3/5 · Heat 1/5

Hit hot oil and they pop and turn nutty in seconds — the opening move of half of South Indian cooking.

Intensity 3/5 · Heat 1/5

Matte black, faintly oniony and peppery. Scatter over flatbread before it goes in the oven.

Intensity 5/5 · Heat 1/5

Tiny seeds that smell overwhelmingly of thyme. A pinch is plenty — and transforms flatbread.

Intensity 5/5

Whole limes boiled in brine and dried until hollow and black. Pierce one, drop it in a stew, and it perfumes everything.

Intensity 3/5

High-curcumin and genuinely aromatic — ginger and earth, not just colour.

Intensity 5/5

All-red stigmas in a small inner vessel inside a presentation carton. Honey, hay and dried flowers — a single pinch colours and perfumes a whole dish.

Intensity 3/5 · Heat 1/5

The signature seasoning: savoury, warm and balanced enough to reach for without thinking.