It’s a busy week for Ryan Alarie. He’s introducing new fans to his award-winning spice blends at three back-to-back festivals, but the founder of RA Seasonings still made time to talk about how it all began.
What started as a life event has become his life mission. Back in 2016, Ryan donated a kidney to his cousin Bryan Wright, and part of the recovery process involved a healthier diet. Alarie was already comfortable in the kitchen and so began experimenting with spice blends to avoid the high sodium content, preservatives, and chemicals that lurk in many store-bought seasonings. At first, it was strictly for family meals. Then came farmers’ markets, and eventually a full-time career built around seasonings that are made without fillers or preservatives and are low-sodium, sugar-free, gluten-free, and non-GMO.
Today, you might see Alarie behind a market table at festivals like a taste of az, while his team fans out to half a dozen farmers’ markets each weekend. Online orders ship daily, and if you’re shopping across Arizona, there’s a good chance you’ve already seen RA Seasonings in markets, butcher shops, and Ace Hardware locations across the state, stretching from Village Bakery in Flagstaff to The Butcher’s Pantry in Tucson. It’s a winning formula that has crowned him a four-time winner of PHOENIX magazine’s Best Local Food Product, most recently in 2025.
Below, he shares lessons learned, the challenges faced, and his goal to make good food even better, naturally.
Tell me about your journey.
My family has a history of polycystic kidney disease, so when I donated a kidney to my cousin, I started making things without the sodium, sugar, and harmful chemicals that we had to watch out for in store brands. My family told me to try selling it, so I took my Cilantro-Jalapeno-Lime, Zesty Garlic, Cajun, and our All Purpose to a farmer’s market and sold a bunch. I was also bartending at the time, so I kept that up while working the farmers’ markets on the weekends. Once I left my regular job in 2018, things really took off because I was able to put more time and effort into the business.
What makes RA Seasonings different from other spice brands?
We use wholesome, all-natural ingredients, just herbs and spices, and make everything fresh weekly. A lot of the stuff from the store can be over a year old before you even bring it home. So, making the blends fresher and without cheap ingredients gives you a bolder, better flavor that’s also healthier for you.
What does a day in your life look like?
I’ve learned over the years to space things out so I don’t have super-long days or get burnt out, especially on production weeks. On Monday, I take inventory of what we sold at the weekend markets. On Tuesday, I’ll order and pick up ingredients, and we’ll label our bottles, and on Wednesday, we’ll make hundreds of pounds of our product. On Thursday, we’ll fill the bottles so we’ll have them ready to go for the weekend events, for markets, and for online orders.
What are your most popular flavors?
We have 21 different blends, so we usually have a six-pack of our top sellers like Greek, Zesty Garlic, Cilantro-Jalapeno-Lime, Taco About It, All Purpose, and the S.T.E.A.K. blend.
What are some of your favorite recipe ideas?
One of my go-tos is a healthier version of Rice-a-Roni, which is nostalgic for me. I use jasmine rice, organic chicken bouillon, and our Hearty Italian blend. And I smoke a lot of meat. My two favorites on ribs and brisket are the Chipotle and the Caribbean Jerk. And the Greek is my all-time favorite for chicken. I’ll coat the chicken in stone-ground mustard, put the Greek seasoning on, and grill it, smoke it, or bake it.
How do you come up with new flavors?
We try to come up with combinations that are more outside the box, and I’ll get my friends and family who are well-versed in the food scene to come in to blind taste them. Once we’ve chosen a blend, we’ll make four different versions of it, do a blind taste, and then narrow it down to two. Then we’ll try both on food, and the winner is the one we go with.
What’s been the biggest challenge?
I do all our social media, so I would say the hardest challenge is just continuing to scale up while juggling production and taking photos and videos to keep up with the tricks of the trade of social media.
What’s next for RA Seasonings?
We’ve been moving into different state markets. Nevada has been our next focus, and we’ve been pushing products there for about a year and a half. Looking back, I would never have thought I’d have a seasoning company. But even though I’ve had so many different jobs, from real estate to the restaurant industry, I’ve always strived to be the best. Now, every year we keep expanding and growing, and I’m really glad at how things worked out. It’s the best decision I’ve ever made.
written by: christina barrueta
photographed by: luke irvin