I was talking to a friend lately about my spice shopping experiences when he said "Bags? What bags?" It dawned on me that not everyone lives near a spice shop. Oh God! I was blind to my own spice privilege!
So, you see, spice shops, which make me prance around gleefully like a child in a toy store, buy their spices in bulk. They sit around in big containers until they are put into little baggies for the customer to buy. A successful spice shop run will make your roommate wonder what you're really up to. Sometimes these are sealed with simple twist ties. Others are more high tech and have ziplock style resealable bags. Others are heat-sealed. It is up to the customer to put their spices into a jar and you should do that ASAP because plastic baggies really aren't air tight. This is why they smell awesome when you bring them home.
While some of us have jars already, not everyone does. A real spice maniac will constantly have to buy more as they go, and they'll probably have a collection of mismatched jars and tins with crazy hand written labels, re-purposed plastic bottles of cheap sawdust and baggies that simply had nowhere to go.
It might be tempting to spend $50 on a rack with nice little cork top jars already filled with about an ounce and a half of all the essentials. Avoid this blasphemy. Cork breathes and air exposure weakens spices. Most bags of spice are 2, 4 or 8 ounces, so make sure your jars can hold enough or you'll be forced to leave bags of powder lying around. Awkward when the landlord drops in. Finally, spice racks look cool, but ideally you want your spices out of the sun, as sunlight can make them weaker too. Cabinets and drawers are ideal but if your rack is out of direct light it should be fine.
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