Our Story

Made by family

Yegna Mart is a family business. It's the two of us and our moms.

We're based in Toronto, home to one of the largest Habesha communities in North America. Here you can find every Ethiopian spice you can think of. Finding one worth buying is another story.

At home, we never bought our spices from the store. We cooked with what our moms made. When we ran out and had to buy, we were never satisfied. It just didn't taste right.

So we decided to share what our moms make. We didn't want to be limited by where we live, so we started selling online. Today we ship across the U.S. and Canada, to anyone who wants the real taste of home.

Here's what most people don't see. It would be cheaper for us to buy finished berbere and mitmita in bulk and put our label on it. It would be cheaper than making it ourselves, even before counting a single hour of work, because the ingredients aren't the same. Our moms choose top-grade korerima, top-grade chili and the best of every ingredient, and that costs more. We make it that way anyway, because it's the only way it tastes like home.

Our moms still make what we sell, the same way they make it for our own kitchen. This isn't another blend made for profit. It's what we cook with every day, made by family.

Thank you for cooking with us. Start with our berbere, or see what we make with it in our recipes.