December is peak cooking and baking season, and if your cupboard or pantry is sending out an SOS – Same Old Spice – Alyse Baca, culinary director and Resident Spice Queen of Spicewalla is here to help, point, teach, share and elevate your senses.

Founded by chef/restaurateur (Chai Pani and Botiwalla) Meherwan Irani in 2017 to share the spices, herbs and flavors of his childhood in India, the original intent was to serve primarily as a wholesaler to other restaurants. But when Oprah Winfrey got wind of it, and put it on her 2019 Favorite Things list, the direct-to-consumer side of the business exploded and has been growing ever since. There are now around 300 spices and blends available to purchase, from the website or at the dedicated shop.

“We offer single dried herb tins, like rosemary, oregano and sage, and single spice tins of paprika, sumac, turmeric, nutmeg and cardamom,” Alyse explains. “The blends are in slightly larger tins and are combinations of herbs and spices we mix, such as Korean BBQ blend, honey & herb rub, za’atar, piri piri, garam masala and pumpkin spice.”

The flagship retail store opened on Page Avenue in Downtown Asheville in 2022. Alyse readily agrees that walking into the Spicewalla jewel box of a store can be a sensory overload. The brilliant colors of the spice tins, the intoxicating scents and so many choices.

“We have sample bowls set out all over the store with our different blends,” she says. “We eat with our nose before our mouth, so I encourage people to pick up the bowl and smell, then taste if you want to. Look at the ingredients to become familiar with those spices.”

Alyse started with Spicewalla – part of the Chai Pani Restaurant Group – in the warehouse seven years ago. With a background in culinary, she soon moved to the creating and developing side and then was named culinary director.

A big part of her job is blend development – sourcing ingredients, building flavors, making and testing samples. She also creates recipes to share on the blog and social media platforms, culinary wizardry from her home kitchen, which must be the most aromatic kitchen in all of Asheville.

“I steer beginner cooks to the blends, because the guesswork is taken care of for them. If they like roasted veggies, I suggest a garlic and herb blend or Italian seasoning. If someone comes in and says they cook all the time and are diving into cooking Indian at home, we have all these great Indian masalas.”

Spicewalla’s collections are packaged by purpose, from holiday baking collections to the garlic lovers collection, in 3, 6, 10 and 18 pack sizes.

The kitchen essentials are a great tool kit for people setting up their first kitchen – or dorm room – or a refresh to answer that SOS call for help. “These are really the pantry basics,” Alyse says. “The three-pack has Sicilian sea salt, black pepper table grind and crushed red pepper, which works for kids going off to college who don’t have a full kitchen. The ten pack is great for first apartments or a first home, and the 18 pack is for people who are really intending to make a deep dive into cooking, or daily cooks who need a refresh on their spice rack. Spices don’t go bad, but they do get dull.”

Decidedly not dull is the newest family member – minced black garlic. Whole garlic bulbs are slowly aged in a controlled, humid environment for weeks, allowing natural sugars and amino acids to transform through fermentation and the Maillard reaction. The result is cloves that are deeply sweet, mellow, and umami-rich, with a soft, jam-like texture and subtle tang. Because it is pre-minced, it’s easy to sprinkle, stir, roast or fold into sauces to add that pro chef touch.

Collaborations have always been part of Spicewalla’s DNA, but the Made with Love in Asheville Collection, introduced in June 2025, is particularly meaningful.

“After Helene devastated so much of our community, our team came together to explore what we could do as a business to support that community, raise awareness outside of Asheville and raise funds to give back.”

The result is a collection of ten collaborative blends with the city’s chefs, restaurants and makers. “We’ve worked with Hickory Nut Gap, Poppy’s Popcorn and chef William Dissen (The Market Place restaurant and Billy D’s chicken) before to create blends for them. We also reached out to people we had not worked with before, but wanted to, like chef Ashleigh Shanti (Good Hot Fish) and she said yes right away. We used her recipe to make the same salt and vinegar seasoning she puts on her fried fish.”

A portion of sales from the collection goes to MANNA FoodBank, Homeward Bound and Blue Ridge Public Radio, all of which provided lifesaving support in the aftermath of Helene. The collection feature AIR Members High Five Coffee, Burial’s Forestry Camp, Chai Pani, Hickory Nut Gap Farms, Billy D’s (The Market Place), Biltmore, Curate, as well as Good Hot Fish, Poppy Popcorn, and Chop Shop Butchery.

The size of the store has recently doubled, allowing Alyse to introduce hands-on classes, which include a primer on spices, origins and cultural history, followed by time for students to make and take home their own signature blend. “I just love that part of this job,” she says. “We create these blends and put them out in the world, but it’s great to get that one-on-one face time and inspire people to try new things and be bold!”

More about Spicewalla.

— Written by Kay West
— AIRfare is sponsored by McGuire Wood & Bissette

Photos courtesy of Spicewalla /Chai Pani Restaurant Group
First photo:  Spicewalla’s culinary director Alyse Baca
Second photo:  Seasonal favorite Pumpkin Spice
Third photo:  The Made with Love in Asheville Collection