Too many tasted like stagnant water, like pickling spices, or like vanilla flavorings added to water.

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There are explicitly holiday-themed beers, of course: festively labeled and flavored with an often secret blend of seasonal spices like nutmeg and clove.

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Masala chai (spiced tea), black tea prepared with milk, sugar, and spices like cardamom, cinnamon sticks, ginger and cloves, is now the hallmark of Indian tea culture.

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Nonfood items like wood and fibers slowed, but the edible nuts, beans and spices segment, for example, grew 34%.

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"I like pumpkin pie, butter cookies, anything that has that combination of spices and gives you the impression of being at home, " she says.

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Again, like cooking, it would be rare to make a dish with two to three dozen spices.

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The cargoes transported across the Mediterranean included terrified slaves and prisoners (like the apostle Paul, whose ship was smashed to pieces) as well as exotic spices.

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Actual berries and peels and spices are floating in the still, their essential oils and flavors being infused into the liquid, like making really good sauce.

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