Purchase whole spices when possible and grind them only as you need them. Consider buying a coffee grinder to use just for spices. Other tools include mortar and pestle as well as graters for whole nutmeg. Deciding whether a seasoning is a spice or an herb is a matter of custom and of regulation by the Food and Drug Administration. But generally, spices are considered to come from tropical aromatics, such as pepper, cinnamon and cloves, and tropical seeds, such as poppy and mustard seeds.
Herbs are the leaves of temperate-zone plants.
These are the five most popular spices, based on amounts consumed in 2000.