This is the 2024 Flavor of the Year, According to McCormick

Make room on your spice shelf.

For the second year in a row, spice brand McCormick has announced a Flavor of the Year. While the food company declared 2023 all about Vietnamese x Cajun style seasoning, 2024 is officially the year of tamarind! The spice, which comes from the tamarind tree and is native to Africa, India, and the Middle East, has lent its acidic, tangy-sweet flavor to Latin, Caribbean, and Mexican cuisines for centuries. It’s frequently found in Indian cuisine as well.

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McCormick is marking tamarind’s Flavor of the Year (FoY) status with a new Tamarind & Pasilla Chile Seasoning blend, which is now available online. Described as “a tangy, Mexican-inspired seasoning blend that pairs tamarind flavor with the mild heat of pasilla chiles and savory notes of paprika, coriander, and onion,” this new seasoning blend can add some unexpected flavor to the rim of your next margarita, and also shines in salsa and other dips. 

To celebrate the year of tamarind, McCormick has also collaborated with global restaurant chain Black Tap Craft Burgers & Beer to create several limited-edition, tamarind-infused menu items, including a chicken burger and French fries, that will be available starting in February 2024. “This year, we're thrilled for people to experience the taste, versatility and tang of tamarind,” Hadar Cohen Aviram, Executive Chef and Senior Manager, Culinary Development, US Consumer at McCormick, said in a statement. “It is the perfect ingredient to incorporate in savory and sweet dishes which is evident through the creative, flavorful, limited-time dishes we are proudly co-developing with Black Tap.”

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How to Cook With Tamarind

While familiar to many home cooks, tamarind isn’t exactly one of those spices that everyone knows how to use properly. So, with that in mind, we’ve included a few tips about how to best cook with tamarind. 

Since tamarind has a slightly sweet, tangy flavor, it works well as a meat tenderizer, as is the case with this recipe for Grilled Tamarind Chicken Thighs. Additionally, because tamarind is a primary ingredient of Worcestershire sauce, it also pairs beautifully with steak. In this recipe for Tamarind-Glazed Flank Steak with Carrots & Dates, tamarind glazes the meat along with honey, tamari, and cumin. 

If you have a craving for pad Thai but feel like going the homemade route instead of ordering in, be sure to add tamarind to your grocery shopping list. A common ingredient in pad Thai, including this Chicken Pad Thai recipe, tamarind adds an unmistakable depth of flavor that really elevates the dish.

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Lastly, proving it can work well in sweet dishes too, tamarind is the star of this Sweet Tamarind Chutney, which pairs perfectly with samosas or even a simple bowl of rice.

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