Just putting together a spreadsheet for botanical prices as I ordered a testing still and want to try out my recipes:
Compared Starwest, Mountain Rose, Pacific and Herbco
Pretty large disparity in prices, even though some seeds / roots are coming from the same country (Egypt, India, etc). For ease of computation just looked at per pound price for a few basics:
Coriander, Cubeb, Grains of Paradise, Licorice root, Angelica, Orris Root, Anise, Juniper
Starwest: $165.00
Mountain Rose: n/a
Pacific: $112.00
Herbco; $74.00
Mountain Rose didn't have enough of the above to count, and Pacific would have come out a bit more expensive as they were missing Juniper. (say around $130)
Guess question is, are you really getting better quality from Starwest to justify the 100%+ markup? Or, conversely - is Herbco offering substandard ingredients for those prices?
And of course - second question, what's the best place to source your Juniper berries?