About Curio Spice Co

Curio Spice Co. started in a saffron field in Northern Greece. Kneeling in the dirt to help hand-harvest the delicate flowers that give us the world’s most valuable spice, Curio founder Claire Cheney began a curious journey to understand how, as humans who once revered spices like Gods, we’ve relegated the same ingredients to dusty warehouses where they sit for years before reaching our kitchens. Spices were grown and traded for thousands of years, but recent history shows a declining respect for land and people and more a celebration of conquest, trade monopolies and exploitation. Since 2015, the Curio team has been working to change this narrative and the way spices are produced and traded while creating unique spice blends that celebrate a sense of place. Our mission is to improve the livelihoods of spice farmers and inspire culinary creativity. We specialize in directly-sourced spices, sourced locally from New England as well as from smallholder spice farms around the world. We pay above Fair Trade price – sometimes as much as ten times the commodity rate – for spices that burst with flavor. We give back through fundraising efforts via our Curio for a Cause campaigns, which support gender equality, climate resilience and community empowerment. We instill in every product a respect for the land and the farmers grow our spices, alongside a sense of wonder for the rare flavors available to us. We are an independent, woman-owned certified B-Corp® and benefit corporation. Read their story