For thousands of years spices have been blended together to give foods greater taste appeal. Wars were fought, empires built and lost, and the world circumnavigated for the first time in search of aromatic seeds, barks, leaves, and roots. Today spices combined with colors, sugar, salt, and flavors yield a medley of seasonings for food manufacture. Advances in spice processing offer derivatives used in manufacturing such as concentrates, extracts, and oils which are more economic and easier to store. Still Mother Nature has the final say on spice quality and origin, consequently contemporary transportation continues to circumnavigate the world harvesting these commodities for enjoyment in an endless variety of foods.