Jörg Springer is really used to a lot these days. But of course he slowly got over the question: “How long will you still be around?” Sure, Alfons Schuhbeck, his boss, has now had to serve a prison sentence for tax evasion in Landsberg, but that doesn’t mean the shop at Platzl is deserted. The investor Falk Raudies stepped in and took over the rent arrears. “The future is secured,” says managing director Springer.
Schuhbecks Gewürzladen am Platzl is the thick ship in Munich’s herb and spice armada. It’s almost a real department store, with almost everything the industry has to offer on two floors. The basic spices and the relevant herbs, of course. But also all spice mixtures for special dishes that Alfons Schuhbeck has presented in his almost countless books. The unique and special mixtures are a special feature of every spice shop, because you can’t get very far in retail with the basic equipment. The name is made by the in-house productions, which convince the customer and bind them to the store.
Schuhbeck’s spice shop on Platzl is the big ship in Munich’s herb and spice armada.
(Photo: Alessandra Schellnegger)
At Schuhbeck, this product range is rolled out widely; online and at Platzl there is not only the “Moroccan chicken & steak seasoning” or the “Syrian spinach seasoning”, but also such oddities as a “pasta water seasoning salt” or even a “ground sex spice”. All of these mixtures were created by the master himself, but the basic ingredients practically all come from Gewürze Fuchs. The company is an internationally active group from the Teutoburg Forest that generates around 560 million euros in sales annually in supermarkets and the food industry.
However, Andrea Rolshausen would certainly not sell its mass-produced goods, even if she holds back from making statements about the big competitor. Well, sometimes she gets a little annoyed when she overhears such conversations in front of her shop: “Look, hey, there’s ginger there! But we’ll go to Schuhbeck, he knows the place better.” Andrea Rolshausen’s credo is: “If I’m going to do something, then do something clever!”
Andrea Rolshausen has moved her shop “Spices of the World” several times.
(Photo: Alessandra Schellnegger)
Her shop is significantly smaller than Schuhbeck’s, it is called “Spices of the World” and is located in the Ruffinihaus with the beautiful address Sendlinger Straße 1. In June she was able to move into the larger rooms of the former Nahr household goods store on the corner of Färbergraben Crowds have increased significantly. Some days she needs two salespeople because she now has a lot more walk-in customers than before, and she also wants to give people advice.
“Sometimes it’s so full and so narrow that the customers’ backpacks get caught in each other,” she says and laughs. “Spices of the World” has been a retail store since 2016 and has moved every two years since then. First Rolnhausen was at the Konen department store around the corner, then at Donisl, finally at the Spanish Fruit House and now here: “Some regular customers are already saying: ‘Just keep it up – we’ll find you anyway!'”
Rolnhausen actually lives in Weßling, where her company has its headquarters and its first production facility in its own garage. In the meantime, the spices for the mixtures are put together in the branch in Hechendorf, roasted if necessary and further processed. In 2007, during a long stay on Madagascar, the poverty-stricken spice island, the trained French translator came up with the idea of importing pepper, cloves and cardamom from there. First through our own online shop, later in stores in Hechendorf and in downtown Munich, and there is now also one in Nuremberg.
The products should be organic, fair, plastic-free and, if possible, regional.
(Photo: Alessandra Schellnegger)
There, too, there is only “something good” according to Rolnshagen’s criteria, which are: organic, fair, plastic-free and, if possible, regional, at least not cheap mass-produced goods from China. On the shelves of the shop on Sendlinger Straße you can find soy sauces and salted lemons from small Austrian manufacturers, saffron from Munich (it actually exists), herbs from Franconia, oils from Lower Bavaria. But there is also a lot of self-imported stuff from Asia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Africa, from South America and the Arabian Peninsula, often in small batches, “so that everything is always as fresh as possible.” The prices? Of course they are higher than in the supermarket. But once you’ve put your nose into one of the sample bottles, you’ll know why you pay more.
It’s similar at the other end of Sendlinger Straße at number 45. This is where the latest addition to herbs and spices can be found. The “Gewürzmühle Rosenheim” has opened its Munich branch here since the beginning of September on just under 60 square meters. Oh, what does branch mean? It’s actually a real gallery. Very stylish, with all kinds of industrial design. “This used to be a shelf for car tires back here,” says managing director Simon Mendel, “and this is a sales table from an Indonesian spice market.”
Managing director Simon Mendel (right, here with employee Dominik Schmalhofer) runs the “Gewürzmühle Rosenheim”, which has also been on Sendlinger Straße since September.
(Photo: Alessandra Schellnegger)
Mendel, 36, is the managing partner of the Rosenheimer Gewürzmühle, which has existed for more than 60 years. The mills and roasting machines are also mostly that old. This has the advantage that they grind more slowly than modern machines and do not run as hot as a circular saw, because that only harms the spices, says Mendel. The Munich native studied “Food, Beverage and Culinary Management” in Frankfurt and was then responsible for purchasing spices at the Dallmayr delicatessen.
He obviously also knows a lot about marketing; all the herbs and spice mixtures are packaged in elegant black or orange cans. Homeland, craftsmanship and tradition come together in his factory, he says, but of course there is also an online shop. They work with star chefs like Nils Henkel and develop new products and mixtures.
The spice mill also attaches great importance to the design of the packaging.
(Photo: Alessandra Schellnegger)
In the spice mill shop you will not only find a wealth of pepper varieties, from the purple mountain pepper from Tasmania to the Indonesian Andaliman lemon bush pepper, but also a “wild spice with cocoa and spruce needles”. The quality is, without question, extremely high, and when shopping you should definitely treat yourself to the pleasure of smelling as many samples as possible. But there are also mixtures that are presumably aimed at a broader audience, such as the “fried potato kini seasoning”. This name could actually come from Schuhbeck.
And Jörg Springer, the managing director of Schuhbeck’s spice shop on Platzl, what does he say about the new competition? “I don’t think we’ll get in each other’s way,” he says, “we serve a different clientele.” He has to admit that the last few months have been difficult, but that was more due to the uncertainty about what would happen next after the verdict against Schuhbeck. Of course, the fact that the chef’s cooking programs were canceled was reflected in sales. And then there was inflation. “People used to buy for 80 euros, then it was only ten or 15 euros,” says Springer, “but now we have stabilized our business again.”