Running errands to the bank isn’t the worst chore for Stuart Keating. It gives him a chance to visit the nearby spice shop, where he can stick his nose into various ingredients and ponder what might be done with them.
“I walk over to Penzeys Spices and just smell stuff,” says Keating, founder and head brewer of Earthbound Beer in St. Louis, Missouri. “So I smelled mahlab and said, ‘Oh, I have to use this.’”
Mahlab—also spelled mahleb and mahlepi, among other variations—is no more and no less than the soft seeds found inside the pits of St. Lucie cherries. Little-known in the United States, it’s popular as a baking ingredient in parts of the Middle East. Its mild, pleasant aroma lands somewhere in an enticing Venn overlap of almonds, sesame, cherries, cinnamon, and toasted bread.