Spotlight: Savory Spice Shop!
June 19, 2018
Michael and Kaeli Sandhoff opened their Savory Spice Shop at Southlands in Aurora six years ago because they love to cook and wanted to bring fresh ground spices to other foodies and home chefs. 
“We loved the variety and uniqueness of each blend. The franchisor comes up with most of them, but we’ve experimented and come up with a few blends, too!” says Michael, who had long wanted to own his own business. The Savory Spice Shop combined both the entrepreneurial urge the Sandhoffs felt and their affection for creating mouth-watering meals.
Why “Fresh Ground” Matters
“We do a lot of our grinding on a weekly basis in small batches so our offerings are very fresh,” says Michael. “Freshly ground spices have a higher oil content and provide more flavor than spices you buy off the shelf in a grocery store.”
The most popular spice that the Sandhoffs sell is cinnamon. “It sounds simple and common, but there’s a huge difference in our cinnamon,” says Michael. “Cinnamon normally has a low oil content – about six to seven percent — that starts dissipating or evaporating quickly, so our fresh ground cinnamon is more potent and flavorful.”
Michael says his customers buy cinnamon for their coffee, baked goods and even use it in barbecue rubs. The most popular spice blend at the Savory Spice Shop in Aurora is the Capitol Hill Seasoning, a combination of shallots, salt, dill weed, parsley and chives and can be added to chicken or fish, vegetables and egg dishes.
Spices for Barbecue Season
It’s officially barbecue season and the seasonings at Savory Spice Shop enhance all sorts of grilled foods. “We have a brand new Sweet Jerk Barbecue Sauce which is absolutely amazing tasting,” says Michael. “The sample sizes we offered were gone in two days,” he says. The Jamaican Jerk sauce’s warm Caribbean spices complemented by citrus, sweet molasses and hickory smoke is a customer favorite for ribs, chicken wings or mixed into shredded meat.
Another new offering is the Whiskey Barrel Smoked Sugar, Michael says, which is fun to add to Southern Lemonade, baked goods, custards, puddings and barbecue sauces.
“You can use it in a lot of sweet dishes, too, from blondies, to caramel sauces.”
A Spice All Its Own
While the Franchisor of Savory Spice comes up with most of the blends, being a foodie means you have to try some of your own, too. Michael’s two innovations are Italian Mountain Seasons, an Italian herb blend for mixing with oil and vinegar for dipping breads, that also goes well on pizza, meatballs and baked chicken.
“The other one is Buckley’s Beasting Hot Honey,” Michael says, “which combines jalapeno and honey and goes great on popped popcorn!”
With just over 400 spices and spice blends at the Aurora location, there’s a flavor for every food lover and palate and the recipes on the Savory Spice Shop website will give you ideas for every meal! Stop by and say hello to the Sandhoffs,and tell them Southshore sent you!
Living Lakeside at Southshore
It’s a food fiesta every day of the week with home chefs making tasty treats in kitchens and barbecue grilling stations in the master-planned community of Southshore. If you don’t live here yet, why not look into life at the lake and tour the beautiful model homes from Toll Brothers, Century Communities and Richmond American Homes. These ranch and two-story designs accommodate every style and are priced from the upper $300s to the $700s.