The Spice Journal

Walk into any Moroccan spice souk — the kind where the merchant knows every ingredient by smell — and you will notice something immediately. Moroccan cooks do not reach for single spices the way European cooking often does. They reach for blends. Carefully proportioned, hand-assembled blends that took the merchant decades to perfect and that the cook has been buying from the same source for most of her life.

This is the foundational truth of Moroccan flavour. It is not about any single spice — it is about how spices are combined, layered, and balanced. Moroccan cuisine is one of the most complex and nuanced cooking traditions on earth, and its complexity comes almost entirely from how its cooks think about spice blends.

At 100,000 Épices in Marrakech, we have been blending and selling spices since 1992. This guide covers the seven essential Moroccan spice blends — what they are made of, how they are used, what they taste like, and where they fit in Moroccan cooking. It is designed as a complete reference for anyone who wants to cook Moroccan food at home with real understanding of what goes into each dish.

How to Read This Guide

Each section covers a different blend: its composition, its flavour profile, its primary uses in Moroccan cooking, and how to use it if you are cooking with it for the first time. The sections can be read in order or jumped to directly — this guide is intended as a reference as much as a read.

One note before we begin: "authentic" is a word that gets overused in food writing, but in the context of Moroccan spice blends it means something specific and useful. These blends are living things — they vary from city to city, from merchant to merchant, from family to family. What is "authentic" is the principle behind each blend, not any single fixed recipe. This guide describes the traditional compositions and the principles. The specific proportions are ours.

1. Ras el Hanout — The Crown Jewel

No discussion of Moroccan spice blends begins anywhere other than ras el hanout. The name means "head of the shop" in Arabic — the best of what the merchant has to offer. It is the most prestigious blend in Moroccan cuisine, and the most complex.

What Is In It

The composition of ras el hanout is the subject of genuine debate. Traditional versions contain anywhere from 12 to 40 different spices. There is no fixed recipe — the blend is the merchant's signature, assembled according to his own judgement and the quality of ingredients available at any given time.

That said, certain spices appear in virtually every serious ras el hanout:

• Foundation warmth: cumin, coriander, ginger, turmeric, black pepper, cinnamon
• Aromatic depth: cardamom, allspice, cloves, nutmeg, mace
• Heat: cayenne, dried chili, cubeb pepper, long pepper, grains of paradise
• Floral lift: dried rose petals, lavender, orris root — the signature of a high-quality blend
• Exotic notes: galangal, nigella, ash berries, monk's pepper

Our ras el hanout at 100,000 Épices is a 28-spice blend. The rose petals are non-negotiable — a ras el hanout without them is, in our view, incomplete.

Flavour Profile

Complex, warm, layered. The first impression is warm spice — cinnamon and cumin — followed by aromatic depth from the cardamom and clove, a floral top note from the rose, and a mild heat at the back of the palate that builds slowly. There is nothing sharp or aggressive about a well-made ras el hanout. It is rounded, rich, and deep.

How to Use It

Ras el hanout is the primary seasoning in Moroccan tagines — particularly meat tagines with dried fruit, lamb dishes, and game. It is the spice base for bastilla (the iconic pigeon or chicken pie), for mrouzia (a rich lamb tagine with honey and raisins), and for many slow-cooked celebrations dishes.

As a dry rub, use 1–2 tablespoons per kilogram of meat before roasting or slow-cooking. In a tagine, it is added at the beginning with the onions and aromatics, allowing 30–40 minutes of cooking to develop its full character. A small amount — half a teaspoon — added to the braising liquid of a lamb shank or short rib transforms it without dominating.

Start with less than you think you need. Ras el hanout is assertive, and a dish with too much is difficult to correct.

Our Ras el Hanout — Authentic 28-Spice Moroccan Blend, hand-blended in Marrakech.

2. Chermoula — Morocco's Signature Marinade Spice

If ras el hanout is the spice blend of ceremony and long cooking, chermoula is the blend of the everyday — fresh, punchy, immediate. It is the foundational marinade in Moroccan cooking, used on almost everything that is grilled, roasted, or fried before cooking.

What Is In It

Unlike ras el hanout, chermoula has a relatively stable composition. The dry spice components are:

• Cumin — the primary flavour note
• Paprika or sweet chili — colour and mild sweetness
• Coriander — ground or fresh, depending on the version
• Turmeric — a small amount for colour
• Salt, black pepper, cayenne

These dry spices are combined with fresh ingredients to make the full marinade: fresh coriander (cilantro), fresh flat-leaf parsley, garlic, preserved lemon, and olive oil. The fresh herbs and preserved lemon are what give chermoula its characteristic bright, citrus-herb character.

The dry spice blend alone — without the fresh ingredients — can also be purchased and used as a dry rub or added to other preparations. This is the form we sell: the spice base that you activate with your own fresh herbs, garlic, and preserved lemon.

Flavour Profile

Fresh, herbal, cumin-forward. Where ras el hanout is warm and deep, chermoula is bright and direct. The cumin is the anchor, but the fresh herbs dominate the nose. With preserved lemon, there is a distinctive sour-salt brightness that elevates anything it touches.

How to Use It

Chermoula is first and foremost a marinade. Fish — particularly sardines, sea bass, and red mullet — are the traditional centrepiece of chermoula use, but it works equally well on chicken, lamb, and vegetables.

The marinade ratio: for 500g of fish fillets, combine the spice base with 2 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander, 1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley, 2 cloves garlic, 1 teaspoon preserved lemon rind (finely chopped), 3 tablespoons olive oil, and salt to taste. Marinate for at least 30 minutes before cooking.

As a sauce for grilled vegetables, chermoula applied after cooking — while still warm — is one of the most effective condiments in the Moroccan kitchen. Grilled aubergine with chermoula is a dish that converts people.

Chermoula is one of the most versatile preparations in the Moroccan kitchen — the blend that transforms grilled fish, roasted vegetables, and simple marinades into something distinctly Moroccan.

3. Harissa — The Defining Chili Blend

Harissa is technically North African rather than specifically Moroccan — it originated in Tunisia and is used across the Maghreb — but it has been part of Moroccan cooking for long enough that most Moroccan households keep it permanently. The Moroccan version tends to be more aromatic and less pure-heat than the Tunisian original, with a greater emphasis on spiced depth alongside the fire.

What Is In It

The core of harissa is dried red chili — traditionally bird's eye or other medium-hot North African varieties, rehydrated and blended or ground. Around this base:

• Cumin — always present, in significant quantity
• Coriander seeds — adds fragrance to the heat
• Caraway seeds — distinctive in Tunisian versions, present but lighter in Moroccan
• Garlic
• Salt, olive oil

Harissa can be a dry spice blend or a paste (combined with oil and sometimes preserved lemon). Both forms exist. The dry blend is more versatile for cooking; the paste is ready to use as a condiment.

Flavour Profile

Hot, smoky, deeply aromatic. The heat in a well-made harissa is not a blunt instrument — it arrives with fragrance and spice complexity that develops as it cooks. The caraway note is distinctive and identifies a properly made blend from an approximation.

How to Use It

Harissa has more applications than almost any other blend in the Moroccan repertoire:

• As a condiment — spread on bread, mixed into yogurt, served alongside couscous or grilled meats
• As a cooking paste — added to the oil at the start of a tagine for heat and depth
• As a marinade base — combined with olive oil and garlic for a simple, aggressive rub for lamb or chicken
• In eggs — shakshuka is essentially eggs poached in harissa-spiced tomato sauce, and it is one of the best uses of the blend
• In soups and stews — a spoonful of harissa added to any bean soup, lentil dish, or vegetable stew transforms it

Moderate heat: 1 teaspoon per 4 servings for moderate heat. If your harissa is particularly hot, half a teaspoon is a safer starting point.

Our Harissa — Moroccan Chili Spice Blend, hand-ground in Marrakech.

4. Seven Spices — Sabaa Bzar

Seven spices — sabaa bzar in Moroccan Arabic — is the all-purpose warming blend of Moroccan home cooking. Where ras el hanout is reserved for special occasion dishes, seven spices is in daily use: the blend you add to soups, to slow-cooked beans, to vegetable dishes, to the cooking liquid of any braise that needs flavour depth without complexity.

What Is In It

Despite the name, the number of spices in a seven-spice blend varies by region and maker — some versions use five, some use nine, and "seven" is more a traditional label than a precise count. The core spices that appear consistently:

• Black pepper — the dominant heat element
• Coriander — aromatic backbone
• Cumin — earthy depth
• Cinnamon — warmth and sweetness
• Cloves — intensity and sharpness
• Cardamom — aromatic lift
• Nutmeg — smoothing element that ties the blend together

Some versions include allspice, ginger, or turmeric depending on the region and tradition.

Flavour Profile

Warm, balanced, versatile. The flavour of sabaa bzar sits between the complexity of ras el hanout and the simplicity of a single spice. It rounds out dishes rather than defining them — a supporting player rather than a lead.

How to Use It

Seven spices is used by the tablespoon in slow-cooked dishes. Add it to lentil soup (1 tablespoon per litre), to slow-braised lamb (2 tablespoons in the marinade), to vegetable couscous (1 tablespoon added with the water), and to rice dishes. It is also the seasoning for Moroccan kefta (minced meat patties) — use 2 teaspoons per 500g of mince alongside onion, fresh herbs, and salt.

This is the workhorse blend — the one you use most frequently and most casually. Keep it within reach of the stove.

Our Seven Spices — Sabaa Bzar, balanced for everyday Moroccan cooking.

5. Berber Spice Mix — M'charmel

The Berber spice mix — sometimes called m'charmel or Amazigh spice blend — is less known outside Morocco than the others on this list, but it is central to the cooking traditions of the Berber communities who have lived in Morocco's mountains and desert regions for millennia. It is spicier and more assertive than ras el hanout, built for the robust, meat-heavy cooking of Moroccan mountain cuisine.

What Is In It

The Berber blend varies significantly by region. The Souss valley version (southwestern Morocco, argan country) differs from the Rif mountain version (northern Morocco) and the Tafilalet oasis version (southeastern, near the Algerian border). The common elements:

• Coriander — more prominent than in other blends, often whole seeds toasted and ground
• Cumin — essential
• Hot chili — more of it than in ras el hanout
• Ginger — fresh and/or dried
• Garlic powder
• Turmeric
• Pepper — both black and cayenne

Some versions include dried thyme or oregano, reflecting the mountain herbs that grow wild in the Rif and Atlas. The result is a drier, more herb-forward blend than the warmer, sweeter profiles of ras el hanout or seven spices.

Flavour Profile

Bold, herbal, with forward heat. The coriander is the identifying note — in quantity, it has an almost citrus quality. The blend is aggressive rather than refined, built for meats that can stand up to strong seasoning: whole roasted lamb, goat, the mechoui (slow-pit-roasted lamb) that is the centrepiece of Berber celebrations.

How to Use It

Mechoui is the traditional application: the whole animal is rubbed inside and out with the spice blend mixed with butter and oil, then slow-roasted over or in a fire for several hours until the skin is crisp and the meat falls from the bone. For a home version, apply 3–4 tablespoons of Berber blend mixed with 50g softened butter and 2 tablespoons olive oil to a lamb shoulder. Roast low and slow (150°C) for 4–5 hours.

The blend also works as a coating for grilled kebabs, as a flavouring for slow-braised chickpea dishes, and as a rub for any robust root vegetables destined for the oven.

6. Tagine Spice Blend

The term "tagine spice" is sometimes used loosely to mean ras el hanout, and the two overlap — ras el hanout is widely used in tagines. But a dedicated tagine spice blend is typically simpler and more balanced, designed as an all-purpose tagine seasoning rather than a signature complex blend. It is a practical tool for home cooks: one blend that works across the range of classic Moroccan tagines without requiring the nuanced skill that ras el hanout demands.

What Is In It

A tagine blend typically includes a subset of the ras el hanout spice range, simplified and rebalanced for broader use:

• Cumin — the foundation
• Coriander
• Ginger — ground
• Turmeric — for the golden colour characteristic of Moroccan tagines
• Cinnamon — warm sweetness
• Paprika — mild colour and depth
• Black pepper
• A small amount of cayenne

It is intentionally less assertive than ras el hanout, which allows it to be used in larger quantities and across a wider range of dishes without risk of overpowering.

Flavour Profile

Warm, golden, savoury. The flavour profile is more approachable than ras el hanout — easier to cook with, forgiving of variations in quantity, reliable across different proteins and vegetables.

How to Use It

Use 1–2 tablespoons per 4-person tagine. Add to the onions and aromatics at the beginning of cooking in the hot oil. The spices should sizzle briefly — 30 seconds — before the other ingredients are added. This blooming in hot oil releases fat-soluble aromatic compounds and deepens the flavour of the whole dish.

Classic tagine applications: chicken with olives and preserved lemon (the most-cooked tagine outside Morocco), lamb with prunes and almonds, kefta with eggs. For a vegetable tagine, use 1.5 tablespoons with a large onion, garlic, and 2 tablespoons of olive oil as the base.

7. Baharat — The Crossroads Blend

Baharat means "spices" in Arabic — it is the generic Arabic word for the category, used as a blend name across the Middle East, the Gulf, and North Africa. Moroccan baharat overlaps significantly with seven spices and with some versions of ras el hanout, but it tends to be associated with North African-Arab cooking rather than specifically Berber or mountain traditions.

What Is In It

The composition varies more than any other blend on this list, with significant differences between Gulf baharat (which uses loomi — dried lime — and sometimes rosewater), Egyptian baharat, Levantine baharat, and the North African versions. The common elements across most versions:

• Allspice — the defining note in most versions
• Black pepper — in significant quantity
• Coriander
• Cumin
• Cinnamon — in the North African versions
• Cardamom
• Cloves
• Nutmeg
• Paprika — particularly in Gulf versions

Flavour Profile

Aromatic, warm, with the distinctive allspice note that makes baharat identifiable even in a complex dish. The flavour is heady and complex but in a different way from ras el hanout — less floral, more resinous, with a rounder sweetness.

How to Use It

Baharat works wherever seven spices works, with a slightly different character. It is particularly good in rice dishes, stuffed vegetables (peppers, aubergine, courgette), meatballs, and grilled meat kebabs. The allspice note gives it an affinity with dishes that include dried fruits — dates, apricots, figs — in the same way ras el hanout does, but with less complexity.

Use 1–1.5 teaspoons per 4 servings as a general guide. In rice, add 1 tablespoon per 300g of dry rice along with the liquid at the start of cooking.

Comparing the Blends: A Quick Reference

Blend	Complexity	Heat Level	Best Used For
Ras el Hanout	Very High (20–40 spices)	Low–Medium	Tagines, celebrations, game, lamb
Chermoula	Medium	Low–Medium	Marinades, fish, grilled vegetables
Harissa	Medium	High	Condiment, eggs, soups, marinades
Seven Spices	Low–Medium	Low	Everyday cooking, soups, couscous
Berber Mix	Medium	Medium–High	Mechoui, grilled meats, robust stews
Tagine Blend	Medium	Low	All-purpose tagine seasoning
Baharat	Medium	Low–Medium	Rice, stuffed vegetables, meatballs

How to Build a Moroccan Spice Pantry

If you are starting from scratch, the order in which to acquire these blends:

First: Ras el hanout and seven spices. These two blends cover the majority of Moroccan cooking. Ras el hanout for the celebration dishes and tagines; seven spices for everyday seasoning and soups. If you only ever buy two Moroccan spice blends, buy these two.

Second: Harissa and chermoula. Adding these two opens up the full range of Moroccan cooking — grilled meats, fish dishes, egg preparations, and the full condiment repertoire. At this point you can cook most dishes authentically.

Third: Berber mix and tagine blend, if you want to go deeper into specific regional traditions or want a more accessible all-purpose option than ras el hanout for everyday tagines.

Baharat is worth having if you also cook Middle Eastern or Gulf food, or if you want the widest coverage across Arab cooking traditions.

Why Blend Quality Matters More Than You Think

A Moroccan spice blend is only as good as its least fresh ingredient. The volatile aromatic compounds in whole spices begin to degrade immediately after grinding — the essential oils that give cumin its earthiness, cinnamon its warmth, cardamom its floral brightness dissipate within weeks of being ground, and are substantially diminished within months.

Pre-ground, pre-blended spice mixes from supermarkets have almost always been sitting on shelves for many months, sometimes years, before they reach you. The flavour is flatter, the aromatic complexity is largely gone, and the result in the dish is a duller, less satisfying version of what these blends should be.

At 100,000 Épices, we grind to order and blend in small batches. The difference is not subtle — it is fundamental. The ras el hanout you receive from us was blended weeks ago at most, from whole spices sourced and handled with the same standards we have used since 1992.

From Our Journal

These guides go deeper into individual Moroccan spices, ingredients, and traditions:

• Argan Oil for Hair — Benefits, How to Use It, and Why Moroccan Argan Oil Is Different
• Eucalyptus Crystals: Benefits, Uses, and How to Use Them for Steam
• Orange Blossom Water: Uses in Moroccan Cooking and Natural Beauty
• How to Make Authentic Moroccan Mint Tea — The Traditional Recipe

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I make my own Moroccan spice blends at home?

Yes, and it is worth doing once to understand what goes into each blend. The practical limit is that sourcing 15–20 high-quality whole spices and grinding them properly requires significant investment in equipment and ingredients. For everyday cooking, buying from a quality source is more practical and often produces better results than a home blend made with mediocre individual spices.

How long do Moroccan spice blends keep?

Ground spice blends are at their best within 3 months of grinding, good until 6 months, and still usable (but noticeably diminished) at 12 months. Store in an airtight container away from heat and light. Never store spices above the stove — the heat and moisture degrade them quickly.

What is the difference between Moroccan spices and Middle Eastern spices?

There is significant overlap — both traditions use cumin, coriander, cinnamon, cardamom, and pepper as foundation spices. The Moroccan tradition tends to use more complex, multi-ingredient blends with floral notes (rose petals, orris) and stronger heat balance. The Middle Eastern traditions (particularly Levantine and Gulf cooking) often use fewer spices per dish but with more aggressive individual character. Both are worth knowing — they are complementary rather than competing traditions.

Is Moroccan food very spicy?

Moroccan food is intensely spiced but not necessarily hot. The spice complexity comes from aromatic warmth — cinnamon, cumin, cardamom — rather than chili heat. Harissa provides heat when wanted, but it is used as a condiment, not cooked into everything. Many classic Moroccan dishes — tagine with preserved lemon and olive, couscous royale, pastilla — are not hot at all. They are deeply, complexly flavoured, which is a different quality.