Chocolate with Spices

If you are not familiar with any particular brand of spices, buy the same spice manufactured by a few different brands and taste them side bu side. A good spice to taste test is cinnamon. If it creates a slight amount of heat on your tongue and tastes peppery, that means it is fresh. You can then assume that the spice company purchases good-quality cinnamon sticks and turns its product over quickly. Chances are, other spices made by the same company will be equally good.