Category-Disrupting Brand Announcing First End-to-End Spice Management Solution
In this age of foodie enlightenment, we score points for buying Berkshire pork and heirloom tomatoes. But we’ve stalled somewhere in the 1950s when it comes to spices… We buy them wherever and keep them forever.
The Wall Street Journal, August 15, 2019
The sleepy consumer spice industry is due for a serious upgrade and a healthy dose of education, and Mark Gudaitis and Luke White of Evermill have created a compelling solution to move the conversation forward. Evermill offers the most thoughtful (and simultaneously well-designed) solution to the home cook’s pantry full of mismatched, expired spices that cause unnecessary waste. Available for purchase early October 2020, and shipping in early November, behold the Evermill Spice Rack: The first end-to-end spice management solution with text-to-refill patent-pending self-aligning wells; high-quality, fresh-milled spices sourced globally from farmers; and a high-design collection prioritizing sleek modernity and crafted to maintain the integrity of the product. In a 16.6 billion-dollar global US industry growing at a 4% annual rate, it’s due time for a little innovation.
Young Innovators Introduce the Direct-to-Consumer Solution to Your Unruly Spice Drawer: First introduced as colleagues building national campaigns for a roster of brands and bonding over their shared backgrounds in the culinary, hospitality and event industries, the partnership between Luke White and Mark Gudaitis, both in their early thirties, may seem an unlikely duo to confront the disaster that is most home kitchen’s spice drawers. From the onset of their friendship, they shared a passion for creative problem solving, ideating simple and elegant solutions to common pain points. Case in point: from an early age as a child interested in cooking, Mark had marveled at his mother’s unruly spice collection, amidst an otherwise orderly kitchen. Fast-forward to an adult life sharing in the grocery duties with his wife Tess, sourcing ingredients for that evening’s dinner or the frequent dinner party, spices were being doubly purchased and quickly going to waste with no system and little organization. This sent Mark on a research quest, asking to see all his friends’ spice drawers when invited over for dinner, further validating the fact that one’s spice collection is the ugliest area of the kitchen, thus hidden from view. From this humble quandary came a call out to Luke for support, followed by a three-year joint journey of obsessive design storyboarding (inspirations include Aesop and Heath Ceramics), sourcing streamlined product packaging, researching the industry, studying environmentally responsible and sustainable solutions, seeking high-quality spices, exploring tech-savvy functionality for timely refills, and raising capital. With a core product offering, auto-refill solution and direct-to-consumer system as the foundation of Evermill, Mark and Luke are continuing to innovate expansive verticals asserting the reign of a new design-minded culinary brand disrupting a stale industry. At the heart of it all is the driving belief that shared cooking experiences in the kitchen and a meal enjoyed in good company can unite people and serve as the leading tenets to a good life.
Form + Function – Science-Backed Sophistication and Self-Aligning Chicness: With an eye towards minimal, sleek, apothecary-inspired design, Evermill’s core spice collection and rack features dark amber-hued jars protecting the integrity of the spices from both heat and light. Glass jars feature mouths large enough for most spoons and small batch, milled-to-order spices ensure fresh, potent product unlike the existing spice collection offerings that sit on shelves unclaimed. With initial two ($179, 12 spices) and three-tier ($229, 18 spices) rack offerings in matte black, white, silver and gunmetal, the chic, streamlined Evermill collection serves as a gallery-worthy addition to any kitchen, or can be tucked away with the modular in-drawer model ($159 for 12 spices, $209 for 18 spices). With a function that more than serves its form, Evermill has innovated a patent-pending self-aligning jar technology that uses the weight of the jars and an interlocking teardrop design to automatically align all the wells, ensuring that labels are always perfectly centered. By investing in a comprehensive collection of high-quality spices and replenishing spice stock in the existing Evermill wells, waste is eliminated and money is saved.
Thoughtful Technology for Ensuring Freshness: Traditionally, the supply chain of the spice business is long and convoluted, changing hands multiple times, often taking anywhere from 18 months to three years to travel from field to table. Buying direct ensures that Evermill spices are shipped as soon as they are harvested and cured. Fresh-milled, small-batch spices ensure that the peak freshness of Evermill products are enjoyed in your kitchen, not affected by the supply chain or sitting on the store shelf idly. Spices are best enjoyed within six months and will expire without potency after a year, a long overlooked and underappreciated fact that is part of Evermill’s core mission to prevent, ensuring that the correlation between freshness and flavor remains in-tact. Evermill eliminates the guesswork by mobilizing the text-to-order, auto-refill, and timely reminder functionality popular among the latest direct-to consumer shaving care and vitamin brands to replace lackluster spice inventory. What’s more, on-demand delivery will even be available at launch, in Los Angeles, San Francisco and the New York tri-state area.
The Quality Priority – A Spice Collection for Epicureans of all Levels: Essentially, the spice industry as it currently functions is dirty, underregulated, wasteful, stale, untraceable, and cheap (or conversely, marked up). As more advocates for transparency enter the market, Evermill among them, consumer education is in higher demand, longing for solutions that track quality and source responsibly. Evermill spices are organically grown, always grown on land that has been free of synthetic fertilizers, growth regulators, insecticides or herbicides. By focusing on high-quality, sustainable producers, natural resources are protected, rather than depleted. Product is sourced globally, then ground in small-batches, allowing Evermill to obtain the finest quality ingredients from their points of origin without compromising abundance. Intensely vetted, quality will always take precedence, and product therefore sourced from a rotating roster of origins, accordingly. Transparency will be honored, as well, educating consumers of each spice’s point of origin with timely website updates. Evermill’s core collection features the 18 spices and blends that make up the building blocks of a kitchen repertoire. Signature blends include the Evermill Blend (a versatile, garlic-centric go-to seasoning with some salt and heat), Captains Blend (a Seafood-leaning play on an Old classic), Italian (an oregano-heavy herb blend) and Harissa, in addition to the basics (allspice, bay leaves, cayenne, cinnamon, clove, coriander, cumin, harissa, mustard seed, nutmeg, oregano, paprika, red pepper flakes, sumac and turmeric – all organic).
Available for purchase early October 2020, via www.evermill.com and shipping in early November. All orders include the cost of the first three spice refills. In Los Angeles, San Francisco, and the New York tri-state area (to start), on-demand delivery encompasses a two-hour delivery window with a minimum spend of $35, available 9:00 am – 5:00 pm Monday through Friday, and same-day delivery Saturday and Sunday.