The King of Spices, pepper has dominated the European spice trade since the Middle Ages and was the single most important factor in the search for and discovery of sea routes to the East. Without the relentless search for this commodity, as precious as the gold for which it was so frequently exchanged, the great colonial empires of recent modern history would never have existed.

Pepper traveled the spice route from Asia for centuries; a trade principally controlled by the Islamic Arabs. After the fall of the Byzantine Empire, Venice gradually emerged as the most powerful city-state in Europe, its economic dominance maintained by wrestling the Eastern spice trade from its rivals. It soon became the sole agent for the distribution of pepper and other spices in Europe and for the gold traveling East to pay for them.

Countries of origin:
Native to southern India and Cambodia; now also grown in the whole of southeastern Asia, West Indies, Madagascar and Brazil.

Types of pepper:
Black pepper - Green or unripe berries dried to black in the sun for 7-10 days; available whole or ground.

White pepper - Reddish almost ripe berries soaked in water to remove the outer skin before drying; slightly smaller than black and milder in flavor; available in whole or ground.

Long pepper - Minute black fruits in the form of a conical spike. Pungent but slightly sweet flavor; rarely used in the West but common in India and the Far East.

Green peppercorns - Fresh unripe berries preserved in brine or vinegar; also freeze-dried; easily mashed to a paste; fresh, mild yet aromatic flavor.

Pink peppercorns - Usually in the West, the near ripe pink berries of South American tree; available pickled or dried; pickled are easily mashed aromatic resinous flavor; mildly toxic in quantities.

Mignonette pepper - Usually a coarse-ground mixture of black and white berries but also finely ground available; common in France as a table seasoning.

Identification:
The trunk of the black pepper shrub is knotted, elastic, with aerial roots. The leaves are broad and ovate. The spikes are 8 to 10cm long and pendent. Each spike contains 20 to 30 pea-like berries. Each berry has a thin pulpous layer, green in the early stages and when it begins to turn red it is ready to be picked. When dried, the color turns to dark brown or black. The shape is globular, small and wrinkled.

< Back to Map