spanish spices for home fragrance?

October 26, 2007 1:29 PM

Is there some spice or combination of spices from the Spanish market that I can get for home fragrance purposes?

I just moved to a new neighborhood which has a large fraction of Spanish people. In the produce section at the supermarket, the spice cart smells good enough to knock you over. The most noticeable scent smells to me like cinnamon. But when I hold up the cinnamon right under my nose, it seems like that is not it. My first thought was they had some synthetic fragrance they were stashing near the cart to attract the shoppers' attention, but I don't know. Maybe there is some chile-cinnamon interaction that is causing the effect on my nose.

Does anybody use Spanish spice for home fragrance? What do you use?

posted by bukvich to home & garden (5 comments total)

it might be allspice, which smells like a combination of cinnamon and cloves.
posted by thinkingwoman at 2:34 PM on October 26, 2007

Do you mean Spanish or Hispanic/Latino people?

I'm wondering if it might have been something like coriander or hoja santa. If you mean fresh leaves, then it's likely to be something like those. Though allspice is a possibility if you meant dried.

Annatto is another possibility.
posted by cmgonzalez at 3:12 PM on October 26, 2007

Is the spice ground? Whole? What does it look like? Are you smelling maybe a cumulative effect of various spices grouped together in a cart?

I als second the request for clarification of Spanish. Spanish as in from Spain, or Spanish as in Hispanic?
posted by DrGirlfriend at 3:22 PM on October 26, 2007

My regular supermarket is selling cinnamon brooms (look like fans) for about $4.00. They are geared for the Thanksgiving shopping crowd. They smell fantastic and hit you when you walk in the door. Try a regular supermarket--I am sure many are stocking the cinnamon broom thing, they usually put it in the produce/nut aisle. I bought one a couple of years ago and the smell is long lasting and wonderful.
posted by 45moore45 at 3:23 PM on October 26, 2007

Spanish = Hispanic Latin American. I am in west Houston Texas USA.
posted by bukvich at 7:10 PM on October 26, 2007