The spice catalogue.

Intensity 4/5 · Heat 3/5

Sweeter and rounder than black pepper, with a slow-building heat. It looks like a tiny cone and grates beautifully over a braise.

Intensity 3/5 · Heat 2/5

Colour first — deep lacquer red — then dried fruit and warmth. Use it generously; the heat stays polite.

Intensity 3/5 · Heat 2/5

Soft, slightly oily flakes with a sun-dried fruit sweetness. The single best chilli to keep on the table.

Intensity 4/5 · Heat 2/5

Almost black, faintly damp, smelling of raisins and wood smoke. It tastes more like dried fruit than fire.

Intensity 3/5 · Heat 2/5

Dried poblano — raisin, cocoa and a soft, mild warmth. The backbone of a good chilli pot.

Intensity 3/5 · Heat 2/5

Coarse, scarlet and surprisingly sweet — fruit and sunshine before any heat arrives.

Intensity 3/5

Paper-fine layered quills that crumble between the fingers, smelling of blossom and citrus rather than heat.

Intensity 3/5

The same delicate blossom character, milled fine for baking and morning coffee.

Intensity 5/5 · Heat 1/5

Loud, sweet and hot — the cinnamon of childhood baking, with far more oil than supermarket cassia.

Intensity 4/5

Grate it and the room changes. Nothing pre-ground comes close — buy whole and take ten seconds.

Intensity 5/5

Oily, dark and powerful. Two or three do the work of a spoonful of anything else.

Intensity 4/5

Perfect eight-point stars, sweet and liquorice-deep. One star flavours an entire pot of broth.

Intensity 3/5

Sweet green anise with a cooling finish. Toast lightly for pork and sausage.

Intensity 3/5

Unripe mango, dried and milled — fruity sourness that seasons without wetting the pan.

Intensity 5/5

All-red stigmas in a small inner vessel inside a presentation carton. Honey, hay and dried flowers — a single pinch colours and perfumes a whole dish.

Intensity 5/5

Two supple, oily pods in a sealed tube. Split one and the seeds smell of cream, wood and dried flowers.