Top 7 Central European Herbs and Spices

Pepper Field is a black pepper producer based in Prague. They specialize in high-quality black pepper products. The company focuses on sourcing their black pepper from carefully selected regions to ensure premium quality.Expand

Rubin Paprika is a renowned producer of paprika-based seasonings based in Szeged, Hungary. Their product range includes high-quality offerings such as sweet and hot ground paprika, smoked paprika, paprika seed oil, chili flakes, and organic (BIO) paprika, available in both sweet and hot varieties. Rubin Paprika is dedicated to preserving traditional production methods while adhering to modern quality and food safety standards. Their products are highly regarded both domestically and internationally, contributing to the global recognition of Hungarian culinary traditions. Expand

Fajszi Paprika Manufaktúra is a producer of spice blends and seasonings. The company specializes in traditional and innovative spice mixtures. Their product range includes various types of paprika and other seasoning blends.Expand

Hodi Paprika Ltd. is a producer of spice blends and seasonings. It specializes in paprika products. The company aims to deliver high-quality spices to various markets. It focuses on maintaining traditional methods along with modern technology for processing spices.Expand

Chipeno GmbH is a Swiss company that specializes in producing spice blends and seasonings. Their products cater to a variety of culinary needs, offering both traditional and innovative flavors. Chipeno GmbH focuses on quality, utilizing selected raw materials to ensure exceptional taste and freshness in their offerings. The company serves both retail and wholesale markets.Expand

The powdered Szegedi paprika spice is made by grinding the pods of the pepper plants. Its colour is a vivid, fiery red and its aroma is strong and spicy, similar to those of baked vegetables. Once tasted, the flavour is sweet, mellow and spicy but pleasant and not too hot, due to the fact that the capsaicin amount is not above 100mg/kg. In some hotter varieties of Szegedi paprika, the capsaicin amount is higher, so the paprika is also a lot hotter in taste. It is so popular in Hungary that it even has its own museum, and is typically used as a seasoning in hearty stews, goulash or sprinkled on meat. However, it is not merely a spice for the Hungarian people - it is the very core of their cuisine, adding that tinge of red colour to almost every dish and making it just a little bit more interesting.Expand

This unique paprika product is made under strict quality measures by grinding the dried pods of deep, silky red pepper plants of different varieties. The peppers must be ground uniformly and the aroma is spicy and pleasant, comparable to that of roasted seeds. It has a sweet, fruity taste, and the higher the capsaicin content in the peppers, the hotter the final product will be. The ground paprika is then packed and sold, and used mainly as a spice in a variety of dishes including stews, on eggs, fish, pasta, potatoes, and in marinades for roasted meat.Expand

Český modrý mák is a variety of Papaver Somniferum, or blue poppy, grown in the Czech Republic (one of the world’s largest producers of poppy seeds). Due to its strong, complex, floral flavor, dark blue mák has always had a very important role in Czech national cuisine. Český modrý mák makes a delicious filling for pancakes, cakes, yeast-dough pastries called kolače and strudels - it is even sprinkled over noodles, potato dumplings (both plain and fruit-filled), or combined with blueberries and spread over a shortbread crust, as in a delicious Czech pastry known as borůvkový kolač.Expand

Paprika Žitava, also known as Žitavská paprika, is the first product from the Slovak Republic to acquire the prestigious PDO (Protected designation of origin) quality mark. It takes its name from the Žitava River valley where these peppers were first grown, but since then, it has spread across the Danubian lowlands. The product is a sweet paprika powder made by grinding the dried peppers that are harvested when ripe. It has an intense, orange to red color, due to the oil that gets released from the seeds in the final stage of the grinding process. Its flavor is delicately sweet and intensely deep, reminiscent of sweet peppers, with no bitterness at all. Use it in a variety of hot dishes and stews to give the meals a unique taste, aroma and color.Expand

Also known as Flemish bayleaf, Vlaamse laurier is a type of tree that has been cultivated in Flanders since the 16th century and is as such recognized and protected. It is a decorative bay tree that has been trimmed down to a perfect shape. It must be at least five years old and grown in a pot. The trees are remarkably uniform in size and shape, which is a result of more than 400 years of cultivation during which the best mother plants were used to further perfect the next batch. In addition to being genetically outstanding, each tree is perfectly pruned to achieve symmetry and a variety of shapes such as a pyramid, sphere or pillar. Since they are grown in the harsh, cold climate of Flanders, they can withstand winters much better than their southern counterparts which makes them very popular in Russia, the United Kingdom and other colder countries. What is also interesting about the ‘Vlaamse laurier’ is that only eleven growers produce more than 105,000 trees every year, mostly for export. Since this particular laurel tree is ornamental, it is often used at exhibitions and for wedding decorations, both in Belgium and abroad.Expand

Munder safran is a variety of saffron produced in the area around Mund, a small village in the Swiss canton of Valais. This precious, deep red spice is derived from the powdered, dried stigmas of the flower known as Crocus sativus L. Each flower has three stigmas, and the harvest is done exclusively by hand, at latest three days after blossoming. To obtain one gram of the dried spice, almost 180 flowers are needed. Munder safran is widely used in cooking, to add both color and flavor – some of the local delicacies include saffron bread, saffron rice, and even saffron flavored ice-cream.Expand

Südburgenländische kräuter or South Burgenland herbs refers to a variety of herbs and flowers that grow throughout southern Burgenland in eastern Austria. Thanks to its mild, warm, and dry climate and the quality of the soil, the territory of this region provides the ideal conditions for the growth of a vast selection of spice herbs, tea herbs, and flowers used for culinary purposes.

Once collected, the herbs and flowers are dried before they are used for making a wide range of spices, herbal blends, teas, herbal salts, syrups, and other products. The whole process is manual and chemical-free, and it is carried out with the utmost care.

Local women involved in the herb-growing business took advantage of nature’s gift and founded the Bauerngarten - Südburgenländische Kräuter cooperative back in 1999. The purpose of this cooperative has been to promote the aromatic herbs and their by-products under a common brand and to aid the products’ sale.

Südburgenländische kräuter is considered to be one of Burgenland’s regional specialties, and as such, it has been protected by the Genuss Region Österreich (GRÖ) registered trademark.Expand