Watson’s Seasoning Blends has introduced a new line of culinary spice blends to create indulgent plant-based meals with minimal effort.
Founded by Lori and Jim Amos, Watson’s offers home cooks a series of premium, clean-label seasonings made from sustainably sourced ingredients. The 2020 pandemic created an enormous shift towards home-based and healthier meal preparation, with about 70% of Americans reportedly cooking at home more frequently.
Unbeknownst to most shoppers, however, store-bought spice blends often contain unspecified “mystery ingredients”, synthetic additives and pesticides.
Sustainable spices
To help consumers create more delicious and healthy meals plant-forward meals, Watson’s has launched six chef-crafted blends:
- California Everything – A California-inspired, all-purpose seasoning
- Yumami – A smoky and savory blend featuring shiitake and porcini mushrooms
- Nudish – A lightly crafted blend for enhancing flavor without overpowering a dish
- Furikake – A vegan version of the classic Japanese spice, made with Pacific kelp
- Italian Blends – “Nord” for Northern Italy’s garlic and cream-based dishes, “Sud” for tomato and herb-driven flavors
The company also plans to release two Latin-American blends in March.
Based in Los Angeles, Watson’s Seasoning Blends is a female and minority-operated brand that hopes to inspire more cooks to reach for mindfully-made seasoning alternatives. Instead of plastic bottles, Watson’s uses only eco-friendly bags and UV-coated hand-blown glass spice jars.
Bringing healthier seasonings to market
“The idea for Watson’s—which is a loving nod to the man who coined the phrase ‘vegan’, Donald Watson—was conceived when I embarked upon a whole-food plant-based diet last year and I found I was quickly bored with the same-old, same-old tastes,” Lori says. “I realized there was a white space in finding a way to level up the taste of vegetables, potatoes, rice, and tofu without having to dig through a messy spice cupboard filled with unsustainable plastic jars.”
She adds, “My decades of experience marketing iconic global food brands has made me realize that people want an elevated culinary experience with unique flavors that focus both on health (theirs and the planet) as well as on their palate. They want the best of both worlds and that’s what we’ve given them with Watson’s.”
