BRUNSWICK

John Karonis, a Mainer who retired three years ago but has found a rebirth in culinary arts, has teamed up with his family to bring a unique blend of spices and cooking accessories to Midcoast Maine.

Together with his wife, Cari, and daughters Erin and Anne, Karonis has fulfilled a lifelong dream of improving kitchens everywhere by opening spice and herb hub Skordo. The company is currently online-based, but the Karonis family has rented out a substantial processing space at Brunswick Landing in hopes of finding a brick and mortar shop to lease somewhere in Midcoast or Southern Maine.

“We’ve looked at a number of spaces from Portland to Brunswick to Camden, with the view that we’ll open two stores in 2017,” said Karonis, who imports various spices and chilies and then creates unique combinations with the ingredients. “Our original way of thinking was that we would start out with a brick and mortar store, but we just weren’t finding spaces that we were real happy with.

“You don’t want to lock yourself into a long-term lease and then regret it,” he continued. “So we said, ‘let’s start out online, build a brand, build out assortment and make sure all of our blends and rubs are tested well.’ That way, we are poised and ready to move into a retail space when we find one.”

Luckily for the Karonis family, they have created a business model that works well as an online brand.

“We’re all about empowering the home cook,” said Karonis, whose spice blends include Thai, Indian, Latin American, various curries, flavored salts and many others. “We do it by equipping them with the best ingredients, educating them on how to use those ingredients and getting them excited about being in the kitchen, having fun, making mistakes and having successes.”

Karonis said there are a few key points that set his business apart from the competition. One is the fact that aside from spices and herbs, Skordo offers many accessories and cookbooks, too.

“We call the accessories a ‘curated collection,’” said Karonis. “We’d like to think that’s an extra value that we’ve brought to our customers.”

Karonis also said that the testing performed by his suppliers and his family “brings a certain level of uniqueness to the spices.”

“One of the things about spices is that as soon as you grind them, the oils start breaking down and they start losing flavor,” said Karonis. “So one of the things we try to do is create our mixes and blends at the last possible minute. Depending on how busy we are sometimes we can do that, or sometimes it’s a couple days behind. But our customers can be assured that our spices haven’t been sitting on a shelf for six months.”

Karonis’ daughters help to make sure the best product is coming in from suppliers, and they keep an eye out for the best trends in an ever-changing industry.

“We have a lot of different ingredients from areas around the world,” said Anne Karonis, who along with her sister moved up to Maine from Philadelphia to help their father run Skordo. “A big focus for this year is pushing (the) education of different spices. Authentic spices that people don’t know about don’t have to be scary. We want them to be exciting.”

Skordo’s website — the hub of all their business until the family can nail down a desired retail space — is a place of discovery that is “firmly rooted in the culinary experience,” John Karonis said.

“We want people to get excited, to get educated,” he said. “There’s a kind of sense of community that we’re trying to build. It’s not about following a recipe, but more about having fun with the people you love.”

Visit Skordo.com to purchase spices and accessories, browse recipes and learn about all things cooking.

bgoodridge@timesrecord.com