We find Just Spices massive range of mixes inspiring, but also a little confusing

You probably didn’t think you needed a special spice mix for avocado  – a blend of sea salt, black sesame seed, tomato flakes, crushed black Tellicherry pepper, crushed chilli and coarse ground pink peppercorns.

You’ve previously got by eating your eggs without a blend of sea salt, white sesame seed, grated tomato, chilli flakes, cut leek, grated garlic, ground roasted onion and cut chives on top.

Those days are over.

The thing about the spice mixes from Just Spices is that once you’ve tried some of them, there’s no going back,  but I calculate there are 57 in all, rather like Heinz, which would make trying them all rather hard in one lifetime. Fortunately Just Spice make it easier with a Starter Set that includes seven of their most popular spice blends, as well as a large 500g tub of Fine Rock Salt.

The egg one is a firm favourite now, I dust my ‘soldiers’ with it before dipping as well as putting a sprinkle onto fried eggs. The Salmon seasoning is another one we use a lot, sprinkling the mix of Fleur de Sel sea salt, red onion,red bell pepper, mustard seed, fennel seed, dill, leek, ginger, green peppercorns, chilli, and lemon myrtle over oiled fillets before grilling them in the brilliant Ninja Speedi for perfect results.

We steadfastly stuck to the rules at first, only using the spices for the foods they were created for. The Roast Potato Seasoning we kept for roast potatoes, for example.

Then, not foreseeing any future opportunity to ever use the Pumpkin Pie seasoning, I instead started using it rather randomly. This led to my using all of the spice mixes a bit randomly, based on tasting a pinch and thinking what it might go with rather than what the box said.

This resulted in some ‘Roast beef and custard’ outcomes, when the spice mix really didn’t go well at all, but not often. Overall we’re enjoying the fun and the flavours

With so many options available, you really could spend years trying them all, especially if you go off piste and start mixing them. Each cardboard tub has an internal seal to keep the contents fresh in the shops, but once you pull the seal away natural die-off of the subtler spices will begin. The cardboard though will helpfully absorb moisture, and of course keep the spices in the dark where they belong.

The packaging overall I find a little bit creepy, reminiscent of the always risible Joy Of Sex manual, which some of us may remember being daringly passed around at school in a more innocent age. Now these hirsute faces loom down at me from the kitchen shelf. The Joy of Spice.

Check out the mind-boggling choice here.