About Savory Spice
Savory Spice was founded in 2004 by Mike and Janet Johnston, who left Chicago for Denver, Colorado to build a spice shop around Mike's background in the spice trade and Janet's marketing sense. What started as a single neighborhood shop grew into a national spice merchant with retail locations across the US alongside its ecommerce store, carrying more than 400 herbs, spices, and hand-blended seasonings.
The Johnstons built the company around processing spices themselves rather than buying pre-blended stock, and that hands-on approach carries into products outside the seasoning aisle, including the brand's Pure Espresso Powder made from spray-dried Brazilian Robusta. In our testing, it earned a 4.8 average rating, the joint-highest score on our instant espresso powder page, and stood out for dissolving completely with no grit or clumps.
Brand website: savoryspiceshop.com
What Savory Spice makes
Savory Spice's range runs wider than the products we review. The lines we know best from our own testing are marked with a star:
Pure Espresso Powder
Spray-dried Brazilian Robusta powder sold as a baking spice, dosed in fractions of a teaspoon. — featured on Brew Gazette
Salt-Free Seasonings
Hand-blended spice mixes formulated without added salt.
BBQ Rubs
House-blended dry rubs for grilling and smoking.
Sugar-Free Seasonings
Spice blends formulated without added sugar.
Extracts
Vanilla and other flavor extracts sold alongside the spice line.
Meal Starter Kits
Pre-portioned spice kits built around a specific recipe.
Why we recognized Savory Spice
The Brew Gazette Top Brand recognition isn't paid for and can't be applied for. We award it to the brands whose products consistently stand out in our hands-on category reviews. Savory Spice earned it on the strength of the products below, evaluated the same way every product on this site is: bought, brewed with daily, and judged on what lands in the cup.
Savory Spice products we rated highly
Savory Spice Pure Espresso Powder, 1.05 oz Jar
A spray-dried Brazilian Robusta espresso powder that dissolves completely with no grit or clumps, carrying a 4.8 average rating that's the joint-highest on our page. We singled it out as the safest choice for applications where texture is exposed, like glazes, frostings, and ice cream bases, because it disappears into liquid rather than leaving sediment behind.
Read the Best Instant Espresso Powder of 2026 guide →What earned Savory Spice the recognition
- Its Pure Espresso Powder holds a 4.8 average rating in our testing, the joint-highest score of any product on our instant espresso powder roundup.
- The powder is spray-dried Brazilian Robusta, chosen for the heavier, more cocoa-leaning intensity Robusta brings to baking applications rather than as a cost-saving substitute for Arabica.
- It dissolves completely with no grit or clumping, a property we verified directly in testing, making it a dependable choice for glazes, frostings, and ice cream bases where texture is exposed.
- Savory Spice has hand-processed its products in small batches in Denver, Colorado since 2004, applying the same hands-on approach to its espresso powder as to its core seasoning line.
- The brand treats espresso powder as a pantry spice, sold and dosed like a seasoning, which sets it apart from espresso powders packaged and marketed as a coffee product.