Andrew Coppolino on how to spice up your life, and your next meal

They have little nutritional value and we use only a pinch when we cook with them, but spices come to mind when fall and winter set in.

Their heady aromas and flavours can transport us to faraway places as we enjoy Thai, Indian or Moroccan foods.

With a greater variety available at grocery stores and specialty food shops, spice use continues to grow in home cooking. At the same time restaurants are preparing a range of foods with a variety of spices.

Their popularity is in part a function of changing demographics: as new cultures settle into our communities, their foods — including spices and seasonings — become part of the landscape.

Awesome and powerful

While herbs are derived from a plant's leaves, spices come from its other parts: roots (ginger), berries (peppercorn), buds (cloves) and bark (cinnamon). Saffron comes from the stigma of the crocus flower, requiring about 13,000 threads to make one rather expensive ounce.

Whether root or bark, spices have a long history in our cooking; they are colourful, exotic and even romantic. Historically, Indigenous people used a wide range of plants such as wild ginger and juniper — ingredients still used by chefs today.

Often tropical and southeast Asian in origin, a culture of awe grew up around spices in Europe: the Romans used herbs and spices extensively, and newly introduced spices became treasures that were prized in Medieval cooking, where sauces may have included six or more different spices.

Their pursuit spurred exploration, too. In 1492, Columbus brought new world chilies and Mexican vanilla to Europe. Vasco de Gama reached India in 1498 and returned home with spices, and the Spanish and Portuguese controlled the Spice Islands near Indonesia in the 1600s before the Dutch did.

No matter where they come from, spices have awe-inspiring culinary power. While we taste only sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami, we can smell hundreds and hundreds of aromas.

Think, therefore, of the relative power of spice: what other ingredient gives you so much flavour with just a little sprinkle? Spices can also act as a thickening agent: adding cinnamon to hot chocolate — by virtue of pectin and cellulose that absorb water — will thicken the drink.

Spices permeate our communities

While specialty food shops carry a variety of spices, they are also available at grocery stores that often stock their shelves according to the nationalities in their neighbourhood. Even five years ago, you would be hard-pressed to find cardamom pods, nigella, basil seeds and annatto in a grocery store.

At Martin's Family Fruit Farm near St. Jacobs, locally grown saffron is available, the store sources it from the Elmira Produce Auction Cooperative.

In Waterloo, Kultrun Market sources spices from Cambodia that are organic, sustainable and fair-trade, including spice mixes, turmeric and several types of peppercorns such as long pepper which has a gingerbread flavour.

The new Onkar Foods and Spices on the west edge of Kitchener has aisles and aisles of spices and blends. It's the same with Kishki World Foods, Ammar Halal Meats and New City Supermarket and others.

• More stories from CBC K-W food columnist Andrew Coppolino

For Indian restaurants, spice is a culinary foundation that's as important as a good stock is to French cooking. But restaurants preparing a wide range of foods — and even their cocktails — draw on spices, from the sumac you'll find on Middle Eastern salads to the Basque espelette sprinkled on meats and the spicy berbere blend of chilies, paprika and fenugreek on Ethiopian misir key wot.

Perhaps they're too often neglected, so pay more attention to the spices in your cupboard as the cold weather approaches: a little can go a long and warming way.

Treat your spices right

Spices do have a limited shelf life but properly stored they can last for up to a year.

Whole spices, because less surface area is exposed to the air, can last longer (sometimes three to five years) than can ground spices. On the other hand, freshly ground and combined spices can "age" and mellow in flavour in the short term.

Here are some other tips:

• Use airtight containers for storing spices.
• Store away from light and heat; beside the oven is not a good place.
• Avoid humidity and moisture.
• Don't hold the container over a steaming pot as you add spice.
• Buy smaller portions of spices and use them up before buying more.
• Toasting spices in a pan can release oils and flavours.
• Give spice flavours time to develop; don't just add them at the end of cooking.