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The Spice of Life
Appears in
By Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins
Published 1982
Exotic peppercorns, each with a distinctive flavor and aroma, are taking their place on spice shelves.
- Ecuadoran Black: known for excessive heat and pungency.
- Green Peppercorns: these are the tender, full-grown yet underripe berries of the pepper plant. They’re mildly pungent but with a touch of heat.
- Lampong Black (Sumatra, Indonesia): this is a popular black pepper with a rich aroma and moderate to strong heat. It is picked when mature and dried in the sun.
- Long Pepper (India, Southeast Asia): berries cluster together on a long rod, somewhat similar in appearance to a small pine cone. It has medium-hot/sweet overtones.
- Penja White (Cameroon): a delicate peppercorn with hints of musk and wood.
- Pink Pepper Berries: These come from the Peruvian pepper tree and its cousin, the Brazilian pepper tree, both botanically unrelated to the true peppercorn-bearing Piper nigrum. Not really pepper, but with a sweet mysterious flavor. Ravishing pink, they are often blended with peppercorns in a medley.
- Red Peppercorns (China): developed by being left on the vine longer to ripen.
- Sarawak Black (Borneo, Indonesia): has a fresh aroma with tones of hickory, fruit, and pine. It is mild and can be used in desserts.
- Szechuan (China): similar to a true peppercorn, but actually the berries of a prickly ash tree. Tastes pungent with lemony notes.
- Tellicherry Black (Northwest India): bold, pungent aroma and lightly hot with sweet flavors. The finest black pepper.
- Vietnamese Black: smoky and complex with citrus highlights.
- White Peppercorns: the interior kernels of pepper berries. Made from the mature berries that are harvested when ripe, soaked in water to remove their outer skins, then dried. Not as hot as black pepper, but more aromatic.