Frontier Herbs Review

I really love the herbs and spices from Frontier Natural Products.  I've been buying them a Whole Foods for the past six months, but you can also purchase them online.  I first started buying Frontier when I wanted to switch to organic and it was one of the first brands I chose to try.  I quickly realized they were one of the best brands.

I like a couple of things about the Frontier Herbs.

• Optional Small Packages.  Although you can purchase their herbs in one of those typical small glass jars, I prefer the small package because then I don't have to worry about my herbs getting stale.  A smaller package ensures I use them up quickly.  
• Freshness.  When I am cooking with them they smell and look like their fresh counterpart.  The basil smells like fresh basil, not sawdust.  The oregano looks like fresh oregano. 
• Corporate Policies.  Frontier Natural Products believes and supports things like sustainability, fair-trade, and environmental responsibility and they've been doing it since 1976

I decided to do a little photo comparison.  I compared four Frontier herbs to their Organic Private Selection Brand counterparts.  I am a little disappointed in my camera, but I think you will be able to see the difference. I strongly encourage you to click on the picture and choose to view the large version on Flickr, where the you can really see the differences in color and texture of the herbs.  Also worth noting is that the Private Selection herbs were fresher when I took the pictures.  I went out to buy them all fresh, so they were all unwrapped and photographer, whereas the Frontier herbs were ones I had on hand so some of them had been opened awhile.

Basil
Private Selection Organic $3.99 @ Kroger for .50 oz (14g)
Frontier $2.69 @ Whole Foods for .39 oz (11.06g)

Notice how much greener the Frontier Basil is?




Oregano
Private Selection Organic $ 3.99 @ Kroger for .50oz (14g)
Frontier $2.29 @ Whole Foods for .43oz (12.19g)

The Frontier brand is also more olive in color than the Private selection which is more brown.  You can also see that the Frontier Oregano also has more of the little parts of the plant rather than the Private Selection "flakes."  I didn't notice a big difference in smell.




Thyme
Private Selection Organic $3.99  @ Kroger for .63oz (17g)

Frontier $2.39  @ Whole Foods for .43oz (12.19g)


This is one where they don't look that different, but they smell incredibly different.  When I smell the Frontier Thyme, it smells like fresh thyme.  When I smell the Private Selection brand, it smells more like tea than Oregano.

Parsley
Private Selection $2.29 @ Kroger for .28oz (8g)

Frontier $2.29 @ Whole Foods for .27oz (7.65g)


I couldn't find the Private Selection Organic, so I had to get the conventional version.  The Frontier Parsley is nice and flat and smells slightly lemony.  The Private Selection is kind of curled up.  It also smells a lot like hay (as in the kind you feed to horses).

To my eyes, mouth and nose, the Frontier herbs come out ahead of the Private Selection brand. They look, taste and smell superior and I think they have a very positive impact on the dishes I use them in while cooking.

P.S. Note to other bloggers....be careful when smelling herbs for a taste test, some just might go up your nose :-)

You can purchase the Frontier Herbs directly from The Frontier Natural Products Co-op (20% off with code gimme20) if you don't have a Whole Foods close to your home.