Événement

Tour of The Spice Hunter, Worldwide Purveyor of Spices

Friday, March 22, 9:30am - 11:30am

The Spice Hunter in San Luis Obispo

$5 for LLCC members, $10 for non-members.

This is your chance to take a tour of The Spice Hunter, a 120,000 square foot food factory here on the Central Coast.

Lucia Cleveland started The Spice Hunter in a spare bedroom in her home on the Central Coast of California in 1980. When I started, what gourmet products you found in the grocery store were things like canned snails on top of the freezer case, said Cleveland. She first became interested in spices while using them to enhance the flavor of the bland mac & cheese diet she endured on backpacking trips. A biology major in college, Cleveland was working at the time testing the quality of well water. Still curious about spices, she set up a table in her spare bedroom to start experimenting.

By 1999, the brand had grown to $20 million in annual sales and was sold in over 15,000 stores including 2,000 specialty retailers. Just after completion of a 120,000 square-foot production facility in San Luis Obispo, California, The Spice Hunter was sold to The C.F. Sauer Company of Richmond, Virginia. Founded in 1887, The C.F. Sauer Company was the first company in America to sell packaged extracts.

Even with all of the change over the years, the spirit of the original Spice Hunter lives on, as Lucia Cleveland remains a friend to the brand that she created all those years ago in her spare bedroom.

This tour will take attendees through the plant and explain how spices are received, packaged, and shipped. There will be a Question and Answer session afterwards with the tour guide.

Guidelines: you will not be able to bring jewelry, rings, watches, earrings, purses or cell phones inside. Close-toed shoes are required. Hair nets will be provided by your tour guide.

If you would like to have the password for the member price for this course, go to www.lifelearnerscc.org for information on how you can become a member.