Villa Jerada’s Harissa No. 1 is our favorite version of this North African red pepper paste for its bright, complex flavor. While many store-bought varieties have a one-dimensional spicy flavor, this harissa layers acidity and fruitiness with preserved lemons, a touch of vinegar and tomato paste for a lively, tangy condiment. Villa Jerada uses just enough high-quality Moroccan olive oil to make the harissa spreadable and smooth without diluting its flavor, as opposed to conventional brands that contain a high proportion of water and vegetable oil.

Casablanca Market's simple and delicious Black Olive Tapenade has a rich olive flavor and even, spreadable texture. It's not overly salty like so many supermarket versions, but rather balanced between briny capers, fruity extra-virgin olive oil, savory garlic and an unconventional ingredient: herbs de Provence, an aromatic blend that often includes parsley, thyme, rosemary, savory and marjoram. The herbs act as a counterpoint to keep the spread from tasting cloying or fatty. Instead, the tapenade has light floral notes on top of the grassy-fruity aroma of the olive oil.

This robust pepper paste, a variation on Turkish biber sosu, features a base of sun-dried tomatoes and peppers for amazing depth and earthiness. With a smooth, spreadable consistency like a tapenade, Belazu's product has a concentrated, complex pepper flavor and a slow-building mild spice. White wine and balsamic vinegars brighten and balance the peppers' and tomatoes' ripe sweetness, while a touch of savory garlic grounds the flavor without drawing too much attention to itself.

Hayden's Chickpea Flour is earthy, lightly nutty and perfectly balanced between sweet and savory. And the company's stone milling process yields an ultra-fine consistency that is easily substituted in recipes. Swap out small quantities in your baked goods for extra protein and nutty-sweet flavor, or whisk into vegetarian soups for more body.

These premium dried chickpeas from Italian artisanal producer Casa Corneli are creamy when rehydrated but keep their shape well and are never mushy. Casa Corneli's Ceci Chickpeas are also slightly denser and more petite than the bloated canned chickpeas from other brands, with a buttery, earthy-sweet and aromatic flavor profile that tastes great even without salt. We also appreciate that the producer vacuum-seals the chickpeas to preserve freshness.

Fruity, subtly cumin flavored and only moderately spicy, coarse-ground Aleppo pepper is used throughout Middle Eastern cooking. We use it frequently and consider it a valuable flavoring for all manner of dishes that benefit from a little spark of heat. Villa Jerada’s sourcing is impeccable as these flakes are particularly moist and richly flavored.

After completing a tour of duty in Afghanistan, a team of U.S. Army veterans founded Rumi Spice, a company that grows, collects, and exports saffron, giving hundreds of local women well-paying jobs. It turns out that a good deal of saffron sold around the world is either old or made from dyed corn silk—Rumi Spice sells the real thing. This is premium saffron: collected by hand, sustainably farmed and ethically sourced. Here at Milk Street, we support the notion of helping the women of Afghanistan earn their own money directly for the first time in their lives.

Rich, earthy dukkah—a blend of crushed, toasted hazelnuts and spices like cumin, coriander and sesame—is as much an all-purpose seasoning in Egypt as garam masala in India or five-spice powder in China. Villa Jerada's Dukkah is one of the freshest, most aromatic versions we've tried, with a fine texture that's perfect for mixing into dips or for sprinkling over food. The blend tastes prominently of cumin and coriander, with the hazelnuts adding a rich, sweet nuttiness and cayenne rounding out the dukkah with a touch of brightness.

Many supermarket tahinis are over-roasted, which gives them an unpleasant, bitter flavor. They are also too thick and hard to stir into a creamy blend. Soom's tahini has a full, nutty flavor as well as a pourable and well-balanced texture, made from single-origin white sesame seeds from northwestern Ethiopia that have an ideal oil-to-protein ratio.

Marinated in turmeric, lemons, sea salt and extra-virgin olive oil, these Marrakesh Spiced Olives from Morocco have a complexity similar to Casablanca Market's Preserved Lemons (a Milk Street favorite), with an added earthy element from turmeric. The olives have small pits so they're especially meaty and bursting with savory, grassy and buttery flavors. And not only do the lemons lend an intense aroma and brighten up the briny mix, the tender chunks of preserved citrus also taste great on their own.

Rose water is the aromatic, subtly perfumed essence that defines the flavor of many of the baked goods of the Middle East; it has the remarkable capacity to cut through saccharine sweetness. We like that Mymouné's product tastes clearly like rose and has a natural, not chemical, flavor, so it isn't perfumey like supermarket versions.