What Is the Difference Between Herbs and Spices?
By the BrainSnail editorial team. How these articles are written and checked, and how to tell us when one is wrong.
The difference between herbs and spices comes down to which part of the plant you are using. Herbs are the leafy green parts, and spices are everything else: seeds, bark, roots, buds and fruit. That simple distinction has surprisingly large consequences for how you cook with them.
The definitions
Herbs are the leaves of a plant, usually soft and green, used fresh or dried. Basil, parsley, coriander leaf, thyme, mint and rosemary are all herbs.
Spices come from any other part. Cinnamon is bark, ginger is a rhizome, cloves are flower buds, black pepper is a dried fruit, and cumin and coriander seed are seeds. Some plants give both, which is why coriander leaf is a herb and coriander seed is a spice.
Why the distinction matters in cooking
Spices generally hold their flavour compounds in tougher, drier tissue, so they need heat and time to release them. Herbs hold volatile oils in delicate leaves that are destroyed by prolonged cooking.
That leads to a practical rule:
- •Add whole or ground spices early, often bloomed in hot oil first
- •Add hardy herbs like rosemary and bay early, since they tolerate long cooking
- •Add soft herbs like basil, coriander and parsley at the very end
- •Toast whole spices briefly before grinding to deepen their aroma
Why spices shaped world history
Herbs grow almost anywhere and are best used fresh, so they were never worth transporting far. Spices dry well, keep for years and grew only in specific tropical regions, which made them ideal trade goods and enormously valuable.
That combination drove centuries of trade routes, exploration and conflict. Nutmeg and cloves came originally from a small group of Indonesian islands, and control of that supply was fought over by European powers repeatedly. The search for a sea route to the spice producing regions is what sent European ships around Africa and across the Atlantic.
Fresh versus dried
Drying concentrates some flavours and destroys others. Hardy herbs such as oregano and thyme dry well because their aromatic compounds are relatively stable. Soft herbs such as basil and parsley lose most of their character and are best used fresh.
Spices are almost always used dried, and whole spices keep far longer than ground ones. Grinding exposes an enormous surface area to air, so ground spices lose potency within months while whole ones stay usable for a year or more.
Keeping them at their best
Both lose potency through exposure to heat, light, air and moisture, which is why the rack above the cooker is the worst possible place to store them.
A few practical rules help considerably:
- •Store in sealed containers in a cool dark cupboard away from the hob
- •Buy whole spices where possible and grind small amounts as needed
- •Replace ground spices roughly annually, whole spices every few years
- •Dry hardy herbs yourself, but buy soft herbs fresh rather than dried
- •Toast whole spices in a dry pan for under a minute to revive older stock
The takeaway
Herbs are the leaves and spices are every other part of the plant, and because spices store their flavour in tougher tissue they need heat and early addition while soft herbs should go in at the end.