Welcome to Nibbles, Boulder’s weekly food newsletter. A technical snafu delayed this week’s edition by a day. Apparently, even Nibbles needs a little extra time in the oven. Look for Nibbles every Tuesday in your inbox for a smorgasbord of Boulder County food and restaurant news, dining tips and cooking hacks.
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In this week’s Nibbles, I confess my pantry shame as baking season approaches and offer the dos and don’ts of buying, storing and reviving old spices. Although I loathe PSLs, I also share the local pumpkin delights I do enjoy. Plus: The Kitchen has a new owner, local breweries won medals, food events are coming up, and we share a recipe for an appetizer tart filled with local beets, goat cheese and honey.
Given the price of beef these days, consider celebrating Meatloaf Appreciation Day on Oct. 18. Don’t forget the mashers.
— John Lehndorff
Time to ‘fess up: What’s the oldest, most Jurassic seasoning hiding in the back of your spice shelf? Confess anonymously; we’ll share the most vintage examples. Email: nibbles@boulderreportinglab.org
While baking some apples, I started rummaging through the upper, dark recesses of my overloaded spice cabinet. I’m not a neat alphabetical kind of organizer. Basically, the spices I use the most are the easiest to reach.
I almost pulled a muscle grasping for a cobwebbed nutmeg jar. I made the mistake of looking at the expiration date and realized I had purchased it on sale during the Obama administration. I opened it and the powder smelled like a distant memory of nutmeg. No punch remained. I also found some jerk seasoning stockpiled during the pandemic.
Clearly, I need to retire some spices, herbs and seasonings.
According to the Boulder-based Colorado Spice Company, the shelf life of its spices is three years.
“When you get to about 7-10 years, even if the products are stored in a cool, dry place out of the sun and the pouch/container is unopened, they will lose a lot of their flavor and natural coloration.”
In other words, old spices don’t go bad. They simply turn into sawdust.
I get it: Per gram, spices are among the most expensive ingredients in any kitchen, so we are reluctant to dispose of them even if our food suffers. However, there is a seasonal ritual you should observe instead of sipping all those pumpkin spice lattes.
I headed out for some aromatherapy in the seasoning aisle of my local market. When you open jars of freshly ground Saigon, Ceylon and Korintje cinnamon, the first thing you whisper is “Wow.” You realize what you’ve been missing from all those recipes using cinnamon. I reduced my pantry guilt by bringing home some fresh spices for the holiday baking season.
The dos and don’ts of buying, storing and reviving old spices
First, do open your old spice jars. Rub a little spice between your fingers and sniff. If it’s barely fragrant, that’s a spice with a problem.
Do buy small amounts of high-quality spices and replenish them as needed. Do not buy spices you seldom use, especially in large amounts. If you have a spice grinder, do buy whole spices, which hold their flavor and aroma much longer than ground spices.
Boulder County stores that sell bulk seasonings in small quantities include Savory Spice Shop, Nude Foods Market, Sprouts Farmers Market, Simply Bulk in Longmont, and Nederland’s Mountain People’s Co-op.
Do store herbs and spices in tightly sealed jars in a dark, dry, cool space — i.e., NOT above the stove or sink. To revive older spices, do dry toast them. Heat ground or whole spices in a dry skillet over low to medium heat for about two minutes until you can smell the fragrance.
Speaking of fragrance, my recent pumpkin spice research has led to a frontal assault of pop-up ads on multiple platforms, including a stomach-churner from Pumpkin Spice Air Wick.
Don’t toss your old baking spices! Instead of composting them, do make your house smell better by making aromatic sachets and simmering spice potpourri on your stove. Recipes here.
Do turn your old ground cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice and cloves into holiday room fresheners in the form of fragrant holiday tree ornaments. Recipe here.
Do save memories. Sometimes pieces of kitchen equipment and items in our pantries are like family portraits on the wall. I have a couple of spice containers salvaged from my mom’s kitchen that are powerful memory triggers whenever I see them. These heirloom seasonings will remain on my shelf. If I lost them, I would need grief counseling.
Why do we love to hate pumpkin spice?
I have loathed PSLs — pumpkin spice lattes — ever since Starbucks birthed that insipid dessert 23 years ago. I blame Starbucks for unleashing an ongoing plague of pumpkin-spiced products. I object in part because most PSL lovers only eat pumpkin pie as a Thanksgiving Day obligation. Few know they are actually drinking a BSSL. Many pumpkin pies are made with varieties of winter squash, including butternut.
“Pumpkin spice,” like “curry powder” and “chili powder,” refers to a spice mixture that can taste quite different depending on the formulation. You can make your own by combining various amounts of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and sometimes cloves.
According to Heather Kennedy, an associate marketing professor at CU Boulder, our PSL passion has more to do with sentiment than flavor.
“People love fall. They love the sense of it. They love the ritual around it. … When we associate a flavor to that, it gives us a sense of nostalgia.”
Pumpkin spice is blanketing Boulder County right now, ranging from Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars at Barchetta and Rush Bowls’ Pumpkin Spice Smoothie Bowl to Longmont Dairy’s Pumpkin Spice Eggnog. However, this region has been into pumpkin spice since 1911, when 15,000 visitors flocked to Longmont’s Pumpkin Pie Day for free pumpkin pies, sandwiches, coffee and cider.
Tasting a pumpkin latte, pumpkin gelato and pumpkin yogurt
After whining recently about pumpkin spice lattes on various social media platforms, I was challenged to sample an upgraded version at The Coffee Ride. Co-owner Joshua Crane made me a pumpkin butter latte. Co-owner Joel Gilmore cooks down organic pumpkins into silky butter and adds cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice plus a little brown sugar. The result is a subtly sweet and spicy beverage with an earthy hint of pumpkin that doesn’t overwhelm the coffee made from freshly roasted beans.
That inspired me to drop by Heaven Creamery for a satisfying scoop of pumpkin spice gelato. This happy combination of creamy pumpkin churned with toasted almonds and a layer of mascarpone reminded me of frozen pumpkin cheesecake.
Every fall I also enjoy grabbing some Noosa Pumpkin Yogurt. The super-creamy Aussie-style yogurt tops a layer of barely spiced pumpkin puree. Noosa is produced from local milk in Bellvue — only 50 miles from Boulder.
I’m looking forward to a season of pumpkin empanadas, pumpkin ravioli and pumpkin curry and, in a month or so, pumpkin pie.
The Kitchen is sold, local Brewfest medals, coming dining attractions
Restaurateur Bryan Dayton has purchased The Kitchen American Bistro restaurants in Boulder and Denver from Hugo Matheson and Kimbal Musk, the brother of billionaire Elon Musk. Dayton’s Half Eaten Cookie Hospitality group also operates Oak at Fourteenth, Corrida, C Bar, C Burger and Cinq à Sept in Boulder.
Boulder County breweries took home medals at the 2026 Great American Beer Festival competition in Denver. Lafayette’s Liquid Mechanics Brewing Co. earned a silver medal for its Kölsch. Local bronze medal winners were Liquid Mechanics for El Poblano Borracho, MainStage Brewing Co. for Oktoberfestfest and Pattern Break Brewing Co. for Negroni Ale.
October buffet: ‘The Big Cheese,’ samosa class and Burgundy bliss
If you are a person of the fromage persuasion, check out “The Big Cheese,” screening Oct. 14-18 at the Dairy Arts Center. The documentary follows the ups and downs as the U.S. cheesemonger team competes in the Mondial du Fromage, the “Olympics of Cheese,” where Americans have never taken home the gold. Tickets here.
South Sudan native Susan Loriho will teach an African Flavors at Home cooking class on Oct. 17. Reservations here.
For the 15th year, Boulder welcomes international French wine lovers Oct. 24-25 at the Boulder Burgundy Festival. Founder Brett Zimmerman will host tasting events and meals at the Flagstaff House and the Academy at Mapleton Hill. Tickets here.
Goat cheese tart is pure Boulder beet poetry
Our weekly recipe from the Boulder County Farmers Markets is an easy tart that tops puff pastry with local beets.
Our spice hack of the week is a truly easy way to transform veggies into tasty pickles. Heat 1 cup vinegar (white, red or apple cider), 1 cup water, 2 tablespoons sugar and 1 tablespoon salt until the salt and sugar dissolve. Add your choice of bay leaves, black peppercorns, peeled garlic cloves, mustard seeds and dill weed, and simmer for about 10 minutes. Fill a canning jar loosely with sliced cucumbers, beets, bell peppers, carrots, celery, red onions and other vegetables and top with the warm liquid. Let cool on the counter. Cover and refrigerate before serving on charcuterie plates, salads and sandwiches.
“How do they taste? They taste like more.” — H.L. Mencken
Want more Boulder bites?
Inside North Boulder’s new French bistro, Cinq a Sept
Opened in July by the team behind Oak and Corrida, Cinq a Sept serves French classics, seasonal ingredients and an early-evening happy hour. Continue reading…
Check out recent editions of Nibbles:
📗 The Boulder restaurants you love (and miss), in one new book
🍰 She started baking gluten-free cakes in Boulder. Now they’re sold nationwide.
🍪 A former Frasca cook is teaching kids how to make dinner
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