Advieh: The Persian Spice Mix of Rose, Cinnamon and Cumin

What sets advieh apart from the other warm spice blends on the shelf is rose. The word is Persian for spice, and also for the mixes Iranian cooks make at home or buy ready-made, and families tend to come up with their own combinations. The published recipes below share a short list: dried rose petals, cinnamon, cumin and often cardamom. Advieh goes into rice dishes and braises for aroma, not heat.

At a glance

The name

Batmanglij’s Joon says the word means both spice in general and a spice mix. In Cooking in Iran she adds that spice mixes in Iran are generally called advieh, from the Arabic for “medicine.”² Some articles say an advieh can be a single spice. That’s true only in the general sense, where advieh just means “spice.”

What is in it

There’s no fixed recipe. These five published versions show what they have in common and how far they range:

Both of Batmanglij’s regional recipes grind each spice separately before combining. The proportions swing a lot: Homa’s rice blend is led by rose petals, while the Azari blend is mostly cumin and cinnamon. Cloves, black pepper and saffron sometimes turn up on lists of advieh ingredients, but none of them appear in these five recipes.

The rose

Rose is what sets advieh apart from its neighbors. Susan Low, writing on Batmanglij’s pantry, notes that rose petals and rose water have been part of Persian cooking since ancient times, in savory dishes as well as sweet, and advises buying dried petals over buds. Katzer lists rose and rose oil as important flavorings across Western and Central Asia and as one of the many ingredients in Moroccan ras el hanout. Wasserman says the petals give her blend a light, sweet, floral accent.

Flavor

Advieh smells warm and sweet from the cinnamon and earthy from the cumin, with a floral top note from the rose and a cool, eucalyptus edge where there’s cardamom. The measured compounds belong to the individual spices:

We didn’t find an analysis of rose petals, or of an advieh blend as a whole, in our sources.

How advieh is used

Rice. Low names Rice with Lentils (adas polow) and Peach Khoresh among the dishes that use Batmanglij’s advieh. Batmanglij’s Qazvini blend goes especially into qeymeh nesar, a celebrated wedding dish of rice, lamb, rose petals and barberries,⁴ and she uses her Azari blend for the aroma it gives braises and rice dishes.

Meat and fish. Wasserman mixes 1 tablespoon of her blend into 1 pound of ground beef or bison for kabobs or burgers, and stirs it into olive oil as a rub for fish fillets before grilling.¹

With no chile and sweet spices in the lead, advieh usually goes in modest amounts, as an aromatic more than the main seasoning, so add a little and taste. Only have a general blend on hand? Garam masala is the closest relative in feel, though it has no rose.

Buying and quality

There’s no standard for advieh. When you buy a ready-made blend, check whether rose petals are in it, since that’s what sets it apart, and whether the cinnamon is listed by type. For homemade, Batmanglij’s method is simple: grind each spice separately, combine, and store in an airtight jar in a cool place.

Storage

Wasserman keeps her blend in an airtight jar in the fridge for up to 2 weeks, or frozen for longer.¹ Homa also keeps hers in an airtight jar in the fridge, with no time limit, and Batmanglij in an airtight glass jar in a cool place. The University of California Cooperative Extension lists air, light, moisture and heat as what speeds up the loss of flavor and color in spices. Rub a little between your fingers. If it barely smells, it’s faded.

Safety

Cinnamon type. Advieh is often heavy on cinnamon, and none of the recipes above says which kind. If it’s cassia, coumarin matters. Germany’s Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) reports that cassia averages about 3,000 mg of coumarin per kilogram,⁹ and that a 60 kg adult reaches the tolerable daily intake by eating 2 g of cassia with average coumarin content a day.¹⁰ See Ceylon vs. cassia cinnamon.

Lead in spices. A New York City health department review of 1,496 spice samples from 41 countries, collected 2008 to 2017, found detectable lead in more than half; spices bought abroad had higher average levels.¹¹ The abstract doesn’t report results by blend.

Health claims

We didn’t find a regulator or systematic review that supports health claims for advieh. For cinnamon, the main ingredient by weight in several recipes, the NIH’s National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health says it’s unclear whether cinnamon supplements help with diabetes or weight loss.¹² We couldn’t trace claims that the cardamom in advieh treats high blood pressure, or that its cumin and cloves aid digestion, to any credible source.

Substitutes and related pages

Ingredients: rose petals (see also rose petal substitutes), cinnamon, cumin, cardamom and nutmeg. Other Persian and Gulf pantry staples: saffron and loomi. Related blends: garam masala, baharat, hawaij and ras el hanout.