Client: Burlap & Barrel

For nearly a decade, Burlap & Barrel has built a reputation as one of America’s fastest-growing, most innovative, and highest-quality spice companies. Burlap & Barrel partners directly with smallholder farms around the world to build equitable, transparent, and sustainable spice supply chains. Their spices have been featured on Shark Tank and The Bear on Hulu, and last year, they delivered over 1,000,000 jars of spices directly to home cooks and chefs nationwide.

But now, the company’s future faces a growing threat. Recent tariffs on imported goods have dramatically increased the cost of bringing many of Burlap & Barrel’s spices into the United States—putting pressure on a small business whose entire mission depends on global agriculture.

“These spices grow in very specific places, under very specific conditions,” said co-founder Ori Zohar. “We can’t simply buy them domestically. Many of them are not grown in the United States at all.”

Burlap & Barrel was founded after chef Ethan Frisch encountered remarkable spices while doing humanitarian work overseas. The flavors were vibrant and complex—far richer than the spices typically available in American grocery stores.

Frisch realized that American consumers rarely experience spices the way they taste when freshly harvested and grown in their native environments.

Together with longtime friend and entrepreneur Ori Zohar, he launched Burlap & Barrel with a simple goal: to connect American kitchens directly with the farmers growing the world’s best spices.

The company bypasses traditional commodity brokers and instead works directly with smallholder farmers who grow heirloom varieties using traditional methods. By shortening the supply chain, Burlap & Barrel is able to pay farmers significantly more than typical commodity prices while delivering fresher, more flavorful spices to customers in the United States.

Like wine grapes or coffee beans, spices are deeply tied to the regions where they grow.

Cinnamon thrives in tropical climates such as Sri Lanka and Vietnam. Pepper vines flourish in humid regions of Southeast Asia. Vanilla orchids grow in places like Madagascar and Mexico.

Because of these natural realities, many spices cannot be grown commercially in the United States.

“Spices are one of the most global ingredients in the world,” Zohar explained. “You simply can’t recreate them somewhere else.”

The Tariff Impact

The new tariffs are already creating serious challenges for Burlap & Barrel’s business:

• Import costs have risen sharply: Nearly every spice the company imports is now subject to additional tariffs.
• Innovation is slowing: The company has had to delay investments in new products and partnerships with chefs and food companies.
• Supply chains are under strain: Tariffs increase pressure throughout the company’s network—from farmers abroad to U.S. packaging, warehousing, and shipping partners.

And because tariffs must be paid when goods enter the United States, the financial burden falls directly on American importers like Burlap & Barrel—not foreign governments. For a small business built around global sourcing, those costs add up quickly.

A Small Business Built on Relationships

Despite these challenges, Burlap & Barrel remains committed to the farmers it works with around the world.

Many of those partnerships have developed into long-term relationships built on trust and shared success. By paying farmers well above commodity prices and showcasing their harvests to American consumers, the company has helped create more transparent and equitable supply chains.

What started as a small experiment between two friends has grown into a thriving company serving restaurants, retailers, and home cooks across the United States.

“This business has always been about relationships,” Zohar said. “The farmers we work with, the chefs who use our spices, the customers who cook with them at home. That connection is the whole point.” Tariffs that disrupt those global connections don’t just affect trade policy—they affect the small businesses, farmers, and consumers who rely on them every day.

Why Burlap & Barrel Joined the Lawsuit

Burlap & Barrel joined this lawsuit because the company believes the tariffs at issue were imposed without meeting the legal requirements established by Congress.

For a spice company, importing ingredients from around the world is not a strategic choice—it is simply the nature of the business.

By participating in the case, Burlap & Barrel hopes to protect its ability—and the ability of other American small businesses—to continue bringing products from around the world to American consumers.

The company’s story began with a discovery in a mountain market thousands of miles away. Today it is fighting to ensure that American businesses can continue connecting global farmers with kitchens across the United States.