You know the spices that sit in people’s cabinets for years and never get used? Sometimes it’s because those spices are bad.
Dan-O’s is big on TikTok and one of our teens described it best as “country.” I think that’s an insult. The good natured white guy in the social media videos seems nice but Dan-O’s is just dehydrated garlic and onion, spices, sea salt, mustard seed, lemon peel and orange peel and comes out tasting like dry, salty dust.
“We use real sea salt giving you the right amount of salt flavor with out (sic) being too salty.” Dan-O’s is produced in an office park in Kentucky: 1301 Magisterial Drive suite 210, Louisville KY 40223.
Tajin is a mix of chili peppers, salt (second on list), dehydrated lime juice (citric acid), silicon dioxide and other chemicals. It’s got sort of an off taste and there are plenty of other chili mixes you could use in its place.
Everything but the Bagel Sesame Seasoning Blend is sesame seeds, sea salt “flakes,” dried minced garlic, black sesame seeds and poppy seeds. So many Trader Joe’s products are insulting to me especially this one.
Seasoning in a Pickle Seasoning Blend consists of sea salt, granulated onion, vinegar powder, high oleic safflower oil, dillweed oil. Garbage and worst Trader Joe’s product ever.
Lawry’s Seasoned Salt is very expensive. Supermarkets love it because it’s shelf stable but it’s really just salt with a few spices. 378 servings per 16oz container so 380 mg of Sodium per serving or 17% % daily value. Salt sugar spices, tricalcium phosphate. Richard Nixon liked to sprinkle this on his cottage cheese for lunch. Lawry’s is a famous steakhouse that still specializes in prime rib served with mushy potatoes and mushy spinach. An American classic!
On the Sriracha knock off front we have (heavily advertised on social media) Chin-Su, which resembles sweet and sour sauce (like tương ớt cholimex) more than it does Sriracha. All of these sauces including Sriracha use preservatives that are probably bad for you.
—Alex
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Dubious Spice Mixes That Aren't That Great
Dear Nirvana Wok: Very timely and spot on! I recently “cleaned out/organized” our quite large spice cupboard and did, indeed dispose of some of the ones we haven’t used in years. However, I’m somewhat of a “collector” (read horder?) so I saved the vintage-style metal cans that (I think) belonged to my late Mother-in-Law. I don’t use a lot of Mace or Arrowroot but they look so cool!
p.s. There are quite a few typographical errors in your post. Sayin’. Aloha!