I was wondering today about things which make cooking your own food at home difficult for people. One thing I thought of was the herbs and spices. If you don’t cook often and decide to try make something new from scratch you might have to go out and buy all the different bits and bobs, probably including one or two different herbs or spices, just to use a teaspoon or so of. This could add a couple of quid onto the price of your shopping and make it seem really expensive to make your own compared to buying ready made.

I live in a shared, rented house, lots of different people have lived here over the past few years, so we have the usual shelf full of out of date little jars of stuff people have left behind when they move out. Occasionally I use some of these, and one thing I have noticed is that they are incredibly badly designed. Most recipes call for spices to be added in quantities of say 1tsp. Why then, are the jars designed so you can’t actually fit a teaspoon in them? It’s insane!! These jars have been around for years, so it can’t be that the makers have not noticed this fundamental flaw. I just don’t understand it.

The other thing about them is the price. You are paying well over the odds for a few grams of spice. Maybe it’s a good job you can’t get it out of the jar, or you might end up using too much and get yourself an expensive spice habit. My local shop, Unicorn, sells it’s herbs and spices in little bags that you can then put into your own jars if you want, meaning they are cheaper and you can choose to put them into something you can get them out of, thereby reducing waste by reusing your old jars at the same time. Very clever. I decided to check out just how much the difference in price was for a couple of different things, and it’s really quite astonishing.

Basil
Schwartz 10g jar, 97p = £9.70/100g
Unicorn 100g bag, 98p = 98p/100g

Ground Corriander
Schwartz 24g jar, £1.25 = £5.21/100g
Unicorn 50g bag, 69p = £1.38/100g

Tumeric
Schwartz 30g jar, £1.10 = £3.67/100g
Unicorn 50g bag, 49p= 98p/100g

The Schwartz basil, probably the most commonly used herb, is nearly 10 times more expensive per 100g! So basically you are just paying for the rubbish jar! Why would you want these these little jars anyway? People who have them seem to just line them all up neatly in a spice rack, so it looks pretty and gives the impression they are doing lots of exotic cooking, and then never use them. Maybe it’s because they can’t get them out of the jars.

I did an experiment on my house mate Mario to discover his emotional state and experience of using different containers and found bigger jars are better for your mental health. See picture 1. Mario is trying to get basil from a Schwartz jar he found on the shelf. See the expression. He is very sad, frustrated and confused. “Hmmm. Why can’t I get my basil?”. Compare to photo 2. A very different, happy Mario, taking his basil from the jar with ease. I am going to write to Mr Schwartz and see what is going on.

Picture 1:

Picture 2:

Read the reply from Schwartz here