As its name suggests, mindspice was originally developed as an alternative to mundane spices, as storing records of flavors required less long-distance trade than actually transporting the ingredients used to create those flavors. However, it quickly grew into a culinary art of its own, as the mindspice could record not only the flavors of exotic ingredients, but also the work of the celebrity chefs who used those ingredients. Ironically, this led to even more long-distance trade, as close proximity to a notable culinary master could now be leveraged into a trade good for export.
The use of mindspice reached its pinnacle during the reign of the Gomla civilization. This partly due to their expertise in thought projection magic, but also partly due to the poor quality of normal Gomla cuisine, which made flavor replacement an attractive alternative to flavor enhancement.