The Ancient Spice Routes of Morocco

In the Fes medina, navigation is a practice of surrender. The streets — some barely wider than a man's shoulders — twist and double back, dead-end, fork into alleys that become courtyards. You cannot get un-lost. You can only walk until you find yourself.

It was on one such walk, following the smell of something complex and warm and alive, that I found Hassan Benali's stall.

The Language of Spice

Hassan is 58, stocky, with hands permanently stained amber from decades of grinding. His stall is in the Bou Inania neighborhood, a short walk from the famous madrasa, down a lane that always smells of cumin.

The display is extraordinary. Thirty or forty wooden bowls, each a different color: saffron orange, turmeric gold, paprika red, the deep purple of dried lavender, the near-black of ground nigella. Along the back wall, brass containers hold the more precious things: long peppercorns from the mountains, dried rosebuds, grains of paradise.

"My grandfather's notebook," Hassan says, pulling a battered ledger from beneath the counter. The pages are thick with Arabic script, annotations in French, and small penciled diagrams. The formula for his family's Ras el Hanout — top of the shop, the spice merchant's premium blend — is on page 47.

What Goes In

Ras el Hanout is different in every household and every spice merchant's shop. There is no fixed formula. The name refers not to a recipe but to a philosophy: put in your best.

Hassan's version contains 30 ingredients. Some he is willing to name. Some he is not. What he will tell you: the cinnamon comes from Sri Lanka, bought from a trader he has known for twenty years. The saffron comes from Talaouine, four hours south over the Atlas Mountains — the finest saffron in the world. The rosebuds come from the Dades Valley, where entire hillsides bloom pink in spring.

The lavender surprises people. "Many people don't know we use lavender in Morocco," Hassan says. "But this is very old. Very Moroccan."

He grinds everything to order. The pre-ground blends you see in tourist shops were made weeks ago, in factories outside the city. Hassan will not touch them.

A Story in Smell

Smelling fresh-ground Ras el Hanout is like reading a history of trade: you can detect the Indian Ocean spice trade, the Saharan caravan routes, the Portuguese influence in the coastal ports, the Andalusian refugees who brought rose water and delicate flower essences north across the Straits.

Morocco was, for centuries, the place where everything passed. The Fes medina is a UNESCO World Heritage site and the largest functioning medieval city in the world. It hasn't changed structurally in 900 years. The spice trade that Hassan practices is essentially the same trade his predecessors practiced in the 13th century.

"Every family has their own blend," Hassan says, carefully weighing out my order on a small brass scale. "Every family's blend is a kind of memory. My father's, my grandfather's, his father's. When you cook with it, you are cooking with all of them."

He closes the paper bag and presses a small wax seal on the fold. Old habit.

"Come back next time," he says. "I will show you something different."

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Hassan Benali's Ras el Hanout ships fresh-ground from Fes within 48 hours of your order.