To price a 4-ounce jar of dry rub you add up its full cost first: the spices, sugar and salt by the batch, your time at an hourly rate, the shaker jar, lid and label, and a share of overhead like rent and power. That's what one jar costs you. Then set the price so that, after card and selling fees, it leaves the margin you want: price = full cost ÷ (1 − margin − fee rate). For a 4-ounce jar of rub that costs $3.34 to make, a 55% margin after 3% fees means $7.96, rounded up to $8.00. Smoked paprika and pepper cost the most a pound; sugar and salt fill the jar cheaply, so the blend's recipe decides the cost, and the jar is close to the spices' cost. A shop pays less and marks it up on the shelf. In the example below, a Michigan rub maker prices its jars for the market and a butcher shop.
The short version
- Full cost = spices, sugar and salt a jar + your time + shaker jar and label + overhead.
- Price = full cost ÷ (1 − margin − fee rate).
- Count your time at a real hourly rate, even if you don't pay yourself yet.
- Cost the blend by weight: each spice at its own price a pound.
- Cottage food sales are direct to the customer in many states; selling to shops can need a licensed kitchen.
- Check what wholesale leaves after full cost before saying yes.
- TaroStack costs each jar of rub from its recipe and what each batch used. More below.
What goes into a jar's cost
| Part | How to count it |
|---|---|
| Spices, sugar and salt | The batch's cost ÷ jars a batch |
| Your time | Hands-on minutes for the batch ÷ jars × your hourly rate |
| Shaker jar and label | Per jar |
| Overhead | Rent, power, tools, spread over the jars you make |
| Fees | Card and market fees as a share of the price |
Rubs and blends as a business are in spice business plan, and jars and labels in how to package seasoning for sale.
An example: a jar of rub
Thumb Smoke Co., the made-up home pitmaster in Bad Axe, Michigan, I use in these examples, blends 12.5 pounds of brisket rub at a time and fills 50 4-ounce shaker jars for its market table:
| 12.5 lb of rub, 50 jars | Amount | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Brown sugar | 4 lb | $4.00 |
| Smoked paprika | 3 lb | $27.00 |
| Kosher salt | 2 lb | $1.60 |
| Garlic and onion powder | 2 lb | $12.00 |
| Black pepper, chili and cumin | 1.5 lb | $15.00 |
| A batch | $59.60 |
| A jar | Cost |
|---|---|
| Spices, sugar and salt, $59.60 ÷ 50 | $1.19 |
| Time, 150 minutes for the batch at $20 an hour ÷ 50 | $1.00 |
| Shaker jar and label | $0.85 |
| Overhead | $0.30 |
| Full cost | $3.34 |
At a 55% margin after 3% card fees, the price is $3.34 ÷ 0.42 = $7.96, so $8.00. At $8.00 a jar, each leaves $4.42. The market table had said $7.00, which leaves $3.45. A butcher shop asked for jars at $5.00, which leaves $1.51; under Michigan's cottage food law the rub is sold straight to the customer, so that price waits for a licensed kitchen. What can be sold from home, rub and sauce and smoked meat, is in can you sell bbq from home.
Get the calculator
Download the spice blend price calculator. One sheet: type the batch's ingredients, amounts and costs, the jars it makes, the hands-on minutes, the jar and overhead, your hourly rate, card fees and the margin you want; the full cost, the price for your margin rounded up, and what a wholesale price and a test price leave fill in. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
The calculator prices one blend. Paprika and pepper prices move by the harvest, a shaker jar holds a little more or less of a coarse blend, and each new blend needs its own cost.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack costs each jar of rub from its recipe and from what each batch used.
Recipes by weight. Each jar of rub is a recipe, with unit conversion from the case or sack to the gram.
True cost from the batch. Each batch takes ingredients at their real cost, from the deliveries they came from, so a price rise shows up in the next batch.
Price creep. A price-creep report per supplier shows which ingredient is quietly costing more.
| The job | Spreadsheet | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| What a jar of rub costs this week | Last season's sheet | True cost from the batch |
| Which spice lots went into a blend | Not recorded | Lots on every batch |
| An ingredient creeping up | Noticed at tax time | A price-creep report |
| Whether wholesale still pays | A guess | Margins on real cost |
Recipes, batches and true cost are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.