Thanks, for reply. I agree about the pith. The zester that I use only takes the very outside of the peel and does not get down to the pith. Also, in my original I did not mention that the way that I will add the various spices is to boil them and make a small amout of "tea" to add to the test bottles. In other words, the spices will be boiled - similar to adding to the last 5 minutes of the wort boil.