Spices from Altes Gewürzamt, blended by hand
Spices from the Altes Gewürzamt manufactory are the creation of a Michelin-starred chef from Klingenberg am Main. Ingo Holland first developed them for his own kitchen, and for six years he remained both a chef at a starred restaurant and a miller in his own mill.
Altes Gewürzamt is the spice manufactory of the Holland family, from whose range we have assembled seven worlds of spices. Single spices, curries, peppers, grill blends, herbs, and salts stand side by side, and because the green tin contains pure spice, the blends season more intensely than you are used to.
In 2007, Ingo Holland gave up his Michelin-starred kitchen for the spice mill
It all began and ended in Klingenberg am Main, where Ingo Holland was born in 1958, where he later ran his restaurant, and where the manufactory is still located today. In between were the Frankfurter Hof, where he trained; the Parkhotel Crombach in Rosenheim; the Hilton Munich; the Schweizer Stuben in Wertheim; and the Baur au Lac in Zurich; his mentors were Dieter Müller and Harald Wohlfahrt.
In 1997, he took over the restaurant Zum Alten Rentamt in his hometown and stood at the stove there for ten years. Until 2007, the establishment held a Michelin star and 18 Gault-Millau points, and in November 2005, Der Feinschmecker magazine named him Chef of the Month. He then handed the kitchen over to his student, Ludger Helbig, and dedicated himself entirely to spices.
The mill had long since started by then, in 2001. The spices he was offered as a chef sent him on a search of his own – a search that ended in his own manufactory, which he named Altes Gewürzamt. Between 2006 and 2018, he wrote four books about spices and salt and appeared in television studios from Planet Wissen to Unter unserem Himmel. The specialist press called him the "Spice Pope," a title that persists in their obituaries today.
Ingo Holland passed away in June 2022; his son Kilian is now running the company in the second generation, and the family continues to sign the brand with their own name to this day. We have carried this house since 2009, and in the years since, we have learned which tins never stay on our shelves for long.
Seven worlds of spices, from curry to flor de sal
From the range of this house, we have put together what belongs together for the kitchen. Once you start, you rarely stop at just one tin.
Two varieties from our pepper selection show why they are worth a closer look. The black Kerala from Periyar in India is matte, wrinkled, and medium-sized—a pepper for the mill that works well with beef, game, dark soups, and sauces. The Tellicherry next to it has visibly larger grains, making it better suited for the mortar, and is perfect for fish and meat—or even coarsely cracked over chocolate cake.
From the national cuisines from Morocco to Japan, we have chosen the Tuscan pasta spice, a coarsely ground, green-brown herb blend with red flecks that works on pasta, in tomato sauces, in ratatouille, and even on fried potatoes. Alongside it are Raz el Hanout, Harissa, Zatar, Ducca, Togarashi, Cajun Spice, and Mole.
The other worlds are almost self-explanatory, as their names say it all. Curries and masalas range from the Anapurna, named after the eight-thousander mountain, to the Purple Curry; the classics of German cuisine include Gemüseschmackes, Grandma’s sauce spice, and the Klingenberg gingerbread spice; and the single spices and herbs include sweet paprika, whole nutmeg, saffron threads, and tonka beans for those who like to create their own blends.
For the grill, we have grill spices and BBQ rubs, including BBQ Beef, BBQ Chicken, "Pork Delight," and an African grill spice. And salt and spiced salt offer Flor de Sal, coarse sea salt, the Poivres Rares spiced salt, and a tomato-based spiced salt.
Kilian Holland calls it a craft of pleasure
Over forty people work at the Altes Gewürzamt in production, quality management, filling, and shipping, and every blend is created in-house. From the initial idea to the finished tin, everything remains in one place, and roasting, grinding, and blending are all done gently and by hand.
Anti-caking agents and additives are consciously avoided, which is why the blends are exceptionally concentrated. "Pure ingredients" here means that the flavor comes from the spice and nothing else. "Spice milling is a craft of pleasure," says Kilian Holland. "It requires knowledge, experience, and a great deal of passion."
You can smell all of this the moment the lid is opened, and you can see it, too. Nothing is ground into a uniform powder; inside the open tin, there are distinct particles in ocher, rust red, light yellow, and green, interspersed with bright grains of salt and individual dark green herb leaves. If you have such a blend on a spoon, you can still see the individual components and identify them. This is what a product looks like when someone has assembled it by hand.
An organizational principle rooted in the kitchen
The worlds into which we have divided this house's range are not just shelf categories, but cooking methods. A curry follows different rules than a grill blend; a national cuisine spice must bring an entire country's culinary tradition into a tin, and a single spice must be able to stand entirely on its own.
The influence of fine dining is evident in the names that appear in the house. A signature pepper blend was created here for Philipp Vogel, the chef of Berlin's Orania, and Stefan Marquard, Thomas Vilgis, and Christian Hümbs also work with the Klingenberg team. A range of this breadth grows at other people's stoves.
Ingo Holland himself was reluctant to give specific usage instructions—he said that anyone who smells an open tin will come up with ideas on their own. That is the kind of teaching you only find from someone who truly knows their product.
Klingenberg am Main, where you can watch the manufactory at work
Altes Gewürzamt is located on Frühlingstraße in Klingenberg am Main, a red wine town on the Bavarian Lower Main that considers itself part of the "Churfranken" region. The manufactory, shop, and tours are all at the same address; the shop is open Monday to Friday from 10:00 to 12:30 and 13:00 to 18:00, and Saturdays from 9:00 to 14:00.
Those who book ahead can take a look behind the scenes and see where the blends are made. The company is equally present in the town itself, supporting the fire department, the children's hospice in Miltenberg, and the forest kindergarten in Röllfeld—and there is a certificate of recyclability for the packaging.
Until you can stand there yourself, a single tin from this house is enough to start. The curry powder with delicate roasted aromas is bright yellow-orange and finely ground, has a piquant heat, and is a classic choice for curry sauces, poultry, and lamb. And once the tin has been opened, the kitchen will still smell like it the next morning.
