A third humorously commented, “The hilarious thing about ‘spice’ in Star Wars is that it was probably originally mentioned in the movie as an offhand reference to Dune, but because everything in Star Wars has to be ~deep lore~ it’s now this whole big thing.”
Oh, we don’t doubt that one bit — George Lucas was obsessed with Dune, so he most likely figured he could get away with a temporary tribute; obviously, it didn’t work out that way, and it remains a legitimate staple in Star Wars.
Source: https://www.distractify.com/p/what-is-spice-in-star-wars