Sourcing dried chiles outside Mexico — what actually works

I live in northern Europe and for two years I worked with whatever the local supermarket called 'dried chiles' — usually some generic red thing, origin unknown. Then I found a reliable online source for Mexican-origin dried chiles and everything changed. What I now order: ancho, guajillo, arbol, pasilla, and mulato. These five cover most applications. I order in 250-500g quantities because dried chiles keep for a year in a sealed container away from light. The quality difference from the generic supermarket product is enormous. A good guajillo has flexibility — it should bend without cracking. A stale or poor-quality one is brittle and has almost no aroma. The aroma when you toast a fresh guajillo should be immediately obvious and complex. For Europeans looking for sources: many online Mexican grocery shops ship across the EU and UK. Worth finding one you trust.