Sensory wheels provide standardized vocabularies for product categories and thus enable better communication among sensory scientists, product developers and their business partners. Recently, increased interest in spices prompted the development of an updated dried spice and herb aroma wheel, the original of which was created at McCormick and Company, Inc. (McCormick) during the mid-1990s. The new version of the McCormick Spice Wheel (MSW) was generated from lexicons developed at McCormick, a sample of which were validated to still be appropriate through cluster analysis, principal component analysis and correlations. The final spice * wheel was validated by a team of sensory scientists (n = 5) including panel leaders (n = 3) and a group of trained descriptive panelists (n = 9). The final MSW has 17 categories and 56 attributes. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONSLexicons allow sensory scientists to evaluate a product or product category with an organized, established vocabulary. Wheels are visual representations of these lexicons and offer a standardized vocabulary for sensory scientists and their business associates, particularly those in product development. Wheels can be useful in teaching descriptive panelists which attributes are related to each other. This can be useful in panel discussions in which there is dissension about the definition of a particular attribute. If panelists understand that two or more attributes are related in a wider perspective, then consensus flows more naturally. Additionally, wheels are helpful in business presentations in which sensory scientists must explain a conceptual sensory space or during benchtop evaluations in which sensory scientists must assist product developers in understanding the sensory properties of a food product.