For the last couple years I have been buying all my loose-leaf tea from Mountain Rose Herbs because…
- Their teas are great
- Almost everything they sell is organic
- They have a huge selection
- They are a often less than half what I was paying at Teavana
A week or so ago, I was stocking up with some Red, Green, and White tea for the winter and I thought I would take a look at some of their organic herbs and spices that they were offering. We use a lot of Basil and Oregano, so I figured I would just see what they charge. To my amazement they sell 4 ounces of Oregano for $2.00 and 4 ounces of Basil for $3.50.
Just to put that in perspective, last time I bought Basil from the grocery store I paid $4.50 for 0.2 ounces. So at that rate it would cost me $90 to get 4 ounces of Basil. So pardon my excitement as I brag on my new discovery. If the 90% discount over buying from the grocery store wasn’t good enough, the herbs are very fragrant and seem to be fresher than what I get from the grocery store as well.
Visual Proof
Just in case you need to see how good a deal we are talking about, below is our newly received package of Oregano (4oz) from Mountain Rose and an Jar of Parsley (0.2oz) that we bought from the grocery store a while ago.
So, this is my money-saving tip of the week: buy your herbs and spices in bulk and quit buying them from the grocery store!
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
We use a ton of fresh and dried herbs at home, and to get an organic product at this price is amazing! My mother in law is going to love the teas also.
Thanks for pointing this out!
Now comes the question of storing them.
@leah and Duke
yea, storage is something that probably needs to be worked out – we use a lot of each, and I expect we will be able to finish off each bag within a year – from what I understand the shelf life for dried herbs is pretty long, but they just slowly lose their potency. Martha Stewart doesn’t like to keep her dried herbs more than 6 months, but it seems like a year seems to be general standard
Isn’t the problem that it takes forever to use that much and keeping it fresh is impossible over that much time? Still, it is a great price. Maybe the best idea is to buy the bulk package and share it with the neighborhood, especially at Christmas!
Thanks for the tip,
Duke
Have you had any luck growing your own basil or other herbs? We grew basil this year – we didn’t get a lot of it, but it was nice to cook a few times with fresh basil that you watched grow!
Tim, we do grow basil and oregano each year – for some reason our Basil started to taste like Black Licorice (I think the flavor is Anise?) and it was quite a bummer… Hopefully next summer will be better!
Wow thank you for this tip!!
We use a ton of fresh and dried herbs at home