Surprising spice in heroic poems (5)
I believe the answer is:
epics
'heroic poems' is the definition.
(epic poems)
'surprising spice' is the wordplay.
'surprising' indicates an anagram.
'spice' anagrammed gives 'EPICS'.
'in' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for epics that I've seen before include "Long poems about great events" , "Long tales of heroic deeds" , "Long narrative poems telling of deeds of heroes" , "Spice up with adventurous poems or stories" .)