The ras el hanout (or rass el hanout) is a traditional Moroccan spice mix, essential for making tagines, couscous, and pastillas but it is also widely used in western cuisine. It is quite an amazing mix, containing up to 30 ingredients, depending on the tastes and inspiration of the spice maker who concocts it. However some ingredients are essential like cumin, cubeb pepper, ginger, nutmeg, turmeric, cinnamon, fenugreek and green anise.It has spicy, hot, sweet and sour, supple and enchanting flavours, releasing complex yet harmonious notes.Ras el hanout literally means “the head of the store”, as only someone who was highly qualified could make up this complex mix according to the traditional recipe. This mix comes from Morroco’s imperial cities (Fes, Rabat, etc) whose elegance, refined lifestyle and gastronomy are still wide-reaching after more than 1,200 years.