The Silk Road Spice Merchant is Calgary’s One-Stop Spice Shop

The Silk Road Spice Merchant features hundreds of spice blends, chiles and herbs for your next scratch-made meal.

A shop interior with bottles of spice blends, chiles and herbs on shelves.
Photo courtesy of The Silk Road.

Located on the main drag in the inner-city neighbourhood of Inglewood, The Silk Road Spice Merchant flagship store welcomes all your senses into its space full of bright, fragrant, fresh and colourful spices.

The Silk Road originated in 2008, after owners Colin Leach and Kelci Hind struggled to find the spices, herbs and chiles they wanted, all in one place. The pair started The Silk Road as an e-commerce site, which quickly grew into an impressive storefront collection of spices.

“We just started to think about how interesting it would be to take spices and treat them like a star ingredient, rather than an afterthought,” says Leach.

Today, you’ll find everything you need online and in-store to create a delicious dish from scratch, from multiple types of cinnamon and lime peel to a large variety of chiles. The Silk Road is unique in the spice blends it offers, which are created and developed by its team — all 100-plus of them.

Aside from versatility and range, quality is another Silk Road pillar. As much as possible, the spice shop grinds its spices and encourages customers to grind them at home to ensure fresh flavours.

“It’s meant to be a really approachable and welcoming full-service shop for anyone who is even remotely interested in cooking with bright and fresh flavours. Whether you’re a brand-new cook or a professional, our store is meant to be interesting and exciting for absolutely everyone,” says Leach.

1419 9 Ave. S.E., 403-261-1955, silkroadspices.ca

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This article appears in the May 2025 issue of Avenue Calgary.

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