where black pepper come from?

Black pepper (Piper nigrum) is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit (the peppercorn), which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. The fruit is a drupe (stonefruit) which is about 5 mm (0.20 in) in diameter (fresh and fully mature), dark red, and contains a stone which encloses a single pepper seed. Peppercorns and the ground pepper derived from them may be described simply as pepper, or more precisely as black pepper (cooked and dried unripe fruit), green pepper (dried unripe fruit), or white pepper (ripe fruit seeds).[2]

Black pepper is native to the Malabar Coast[3][4] of India, and the Malabar pepper is extensively cultivated there and in other tropical regions.

Ground, dried, and cooked peppercorns have been used since antiquity, both for flavour and as a traditional medicine. Black pepper is the world's most traded spice, and is one of the most common spices added to cuisines around the world. Its spiciness is due to the chemical compound piperine, which is a different kind of spicy from the capsaicin characteristic of chili peppers. It is ubiquitous in the Western world as a seasoning, and is often paired with salt and available on dining tables in shakers or mills.

The word pepper derives from Old English pipor, Latin piper, and Greek: πέπερι which is of Oriental origin,[5] likely from Dravidian pippali, meaning "long pepper".[6] Sanskrit pippali shares the same meaning.[5]

In the 16th century, people began using pepper to also mean the unrelated New World chili pepper (genus Capsicum).[5]: 2b

Processed peppercorns come in a variety of colours, any one of which may be used in food preparation, especially common peppercorn sauce.[7]

Black pepper is produced from the still-green, unripe drupe of the pepper plant.[2] The drupes are cooked briefly in hot water, both to clean them and to prepare them for drying.[8] The heat ruptures cell walls in the pepper, speeding the work of browning enzymes during drying.[8] The drupes dry in the sun or by machine for several days, during which the pepper skin around the seed shrinks and darkens into a thin, wrinkled black layer. Once dry, the spice is called black peppercorn. On some estates, the berries are separated from the stem by hand and then sun-dried without boiling.[2]

After the peppercorns are dried, pepper spirit and oil can be extracted from the berries by crushing them. Pepper spirit is used in many medicinal and beauty products. Pepper oil is also used as an ayurvedic massage oil and in certain beauty and herbal treatments.

White pepper consists solely of the seed of the ripe fruit of the pepper plant, with the thin darker-coloured skin (flesh) of the fruit removed. This is usually accomplished by a process known as retting, where fully ripe red pepper berries are soaked in water for about a week so the flesh of the peppercorn softens and decomposes; rubbing then removes what remains of the fruit, and the naked seed is dried. Sometimes the outer layer is removed from the seed through other mechanical, chemical, or biological methods.[9]

Ground white pepper is commonly used in Chinese, Thai, and Portuguese cuisines. It finds occasional use in other cuisines in salads, light-coloured sauces, and mashed potatoes as a substitute for black pepper, because black pepper would visibly stand out. However, white pepper lacks certain compounds present in the outer layer of the drupe, resulting in a different overall flavour.

Green pepper, like black pepper, is made from unripe drupes. Dried green peppercorns are treated in a way that retains the green colour, such as with sulfur dioxide, canning, or freeze-drying. Pickled peppercorns, also green, are unripe drupes preserved in brine or vinegar.

Fresh, unpreserved green pepper drupes are used in some cuisines like Thai cuisine and Tamil cuisine. Their flavour has been described as "spicy and fresh", with a "bright aroma."[10] They decay quickly if not dried or preserved, making them unsuitable for international shipping.

Red peppercorns usually consist of ripe peppercorn drupes preserved in brine and vinegar. Ripe red peppercorns can also be dried using the same colour-preserving techniques used to produce green pepper.[11]

Pink peppercorns are the fruits of the Peruvian pepper tree, Schinus molle, or its relative, the Brazilian pepper tree, Schinus terebinthifolius, plants from a different family (Anacardiaceae). As they are members of the cashew family, they may cause allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis, for persons with a tree nut allergy.

The bark of Drimys winteri ("canelo" or "winter's bark") is used as a substitute for pepper in cold and temperate regions of Chile and Argentina, where it is easily found and readily available. In New Zealand, the seeds of kawakawa (Piper excelsum), a relative of black pepper, are sometimes used as pepper; the leaves of Pseudowintera colorata ("mountain horopito") are another replacement for pepper. Several plants in the United States are also used as pepper substitutes, such as field pepperwort, least pepperwort, shepherd's purse, horseradish, and field pennycress.

The pepper plant is a perennial woody vine growing up to 4 m (13 ft) in height on supporting trees, poles, or trellises. It is a spreading vine, rooting readily where trailing stems touch the ground. The leaves are alternate, entire, 5 to 10 cm (2.0 to 3.9 in) long and 3 to 6 cm (1.2 to 2.4 in) across. The flowers are small, produced on pendulous spikes 4 to 8 cm (1.6 to 3.1 in) long at the leaf nodes, the spikes lengthening up to 7 to 15 cm (2.8 to 5.9 in) as the fruit matures.[12]

Pepper can be grown in soil that is neither too dry nor susceptible to flooding, moist, well-drained, and rich in organic matter (the vines do not do well over an altitude of 900 m (3,000 ft) above sea level). The plants are propagated by cuttings about 40 to 50 cm (16 to 20 in) long, tied up to neighbouring trees or climbing frames at distances of about 2 m (6 ft 7 in) apart; trees with rough bark are favoured over those with smooth bark, as the pepper plants climb rough bark more readily. Competing plants are cleared away, leaving only sufficient trees to provide shade and permit free ventilation. The roots are covered in leaf mulch and manure, and the shoots are trimmed twice a year. On dry soils, the young plants require watering every other day during the dry season for the first three years. The plants bear fruit from the fourth or fifth year, and then typically for seven years. The cuttings are usually cultivars, selected both for yield and quality of fruit.[citation needed]

A single stem bears 20 to 30 fruiting spikes. The harvest begins as soon as one or two fruits at the base of the spikes begin to turn red, and before the fruit is fully mature, and still hard; if allowed to ripen completely, the fruits lose pungency, and ultimately fall off and are lost. The spikes are collected and spread out to dry in the sun, then the peppercorns are stripped off the spikes.[12]

Black pepper is native either to Southeast Asia[13] or South Asia.[14] Within the genus Piper, it is most closely related to other Asian species such as P. caninum.[14]

Wild pepper grows in the Western Ghats region of India. Into the 19th century, the forests contained expansive wild pepper vines, as recorded by the Scottish physician Francis Buchanan (also a botanist and geographer) in his book A journey from Madras through the countries of Mysore, Canara and Malabar (Volume III).[15] However, deforestation resulted in wild pepper growing in more limited forest patches from Goa to Kerala, with the wild source gradually decreasing as the quality and yield of the cultivated variety improved. No successful grafting of commercial pepper on wild pepper has been achieved to date.[15]

In 2020, Vietnam was the world's largest producer and exporter of black peppercorns, producing 270,192 tonnes or 36% of the world total (table).[16] Other major producers were Brazil, Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, China, and Malaysia. Global pepper production varies annually according to crop management, disease, and weather.[17] Peppercorns are among the most widely traded spice in the world, accounting for 20% of all spice imports.[18]

Black pepper is native to South Asia and Southeast Asia, and has been known to Indian cooking since at least 2000 BCE.[19][how?] J. Innes Miller notes that while pepper was grown in southern Thailand and in Malaysia,[when?] its most important source was India, particularly the Malabar Coast, in what is now the state of Kerala.[20] The lost ancient port city of Muziris in Kerala, famous for exporting black pepper and various other spices, gets mentioned in a number of classical historical sources for its trade with Roman Empire, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Levant, and Yemen.[21][22][23][24] Peppercorns were a much-prized trade good, often referred to as "black gold" and used as a form of commodity money. The legacy of this trade remains in some Western legal systems that recognize the term "peppercorn rent" as a token payment for something that is, essentially, a gift.

The ancient history of black pepper is often interlinked with (and confused with) that of long pepper, the dried fruit of closely related Piper longum. The Romans knew of both and often referred to either as just piper. In fact, the popularity of long pepper did not entirely decline until the discovery of the New World and of chili peppers. Chili peppers—some of which, when dried, are similar in shape and taste to long pepper—were easier to grow in a variety of locations more convenient to Europe. Before the 16th century, pepper was being grown in Java, Sunda, Sumatra, Madagascar, Malaysia, and everywhere in Southeast Asia. These areas traded mainly with China, or used the pepper locally.[25] Ports in the Malabar area also served as a stop-off point for much of the trade in other spices from farther east in the Indian Ocean.

Black peppercorns were found stuffed in the nostrils of Ramesses II, placed there as part of the mummification rituals shortly after his death in 1213 BCE.[26] Little else is known about the use of pepper in ancient Egypt and how it reached the Nile from the Malabar Coast of South Asia.

Pepper (both long and black) was known in Greece at least as early as the fourth century BCE, though it was probably an uncommon and expensive item that only the very rich could afford.

By the time of the early Roman Empire, especially after Rome's conquest of Egypt in 30 BCE, open-ocean crossing of the Arabian Sea direct to Chera dynasty southern India's Malabar Coast was near routine. Details of this trading across the Indian Ocean have been passed down in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. According to the Greek geographer Strabo, the early empire sent a fleet of around 120 ships on an annual trip to India and back.[27] The fleet timed its travel across the Arabian Sea to take advantage of the predictable monsoon winds. Returning from India, the ships travelled up the Red Sea, from where the cargo was carried overland or via the Nile-Red Sea canal to the Nile River, barged to Alexandria, and shipped from there to Italy and Rome. The rough geographical outlines of this same trade route would dominate the pepper trade into Europe for a millennium and a half to come.

With ships sailing directly to the Malabar coast, Malabar black pepper was now travelling a shorter trade route than long pepper, and the prices reflected it. Pliny the Elder's Natural History tells us the prices in Rome around 77 CE: "Long pepper ... is 15 denarii per pound, while that of white pepper is seven, and of black, four." Pliny also complains, "There is no year in which India does not drain the Roman Empire of 50 million sesterces", and further moralizes on pepper:

He does not state whether the 50 million was the actual amount of money which found its way to India or the total retail cost of the items in Rome, and, elsewhere, he cites a figure of 100 million sesterces.[27]

Black pepper was a well-known and widespread, if expensive, seasoning in the Roman Empire. Apicius' De re coquinaria, a third-century cookbook probably based at least partly on one from the first century CE, includes pepper in a majority of its recipes. Edward Gibbon wrote, in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, that pepper was "a favorite ingredient of the most expensive Roman cookery".[29]

Pepper was so valuable that it was often used as collateral or even currency. The taste for pepper (or the appreciation of its monetary value) was passed on to those who would see Rome fall. Alaric, king of the Visigoths, included 3,000 pounds of pepper as part of the ransom he demanded from Rome when he besieged the city in the fifth century.[30] After the fall of Rome, others took over the middle legs of the spice trade, first the Persians and then the Arabs; Innes Miller cites the account of Cosmas Indicopleustes, who travelled east to India, as proof that "pepper was still being exported from India in the sixth century".[31] By the end of the Early Middle Ages, the central portions of the spice trade were firmly under Islamic control. Once into the Mediterranean, the trade was largely monopolized by Italian powers, especially Venice and Genoa. The rise of these city-states was funded in large part by the spice trade.

A riddle authored by Saint Aldhelm, a seventh-century Bishop of Sherborne, sheds some light on black pepper's role in England at that time:

It is commonly believed that during the Middle Ages, pepper was often used to conceal the taste of partially rotten meat. No evidence supports this claim, and historians view it as highly unlikely; in the Middle Ages, pepper was a luxury item, affordable only to the wealthy, who certainly had unspoiled meat available, as well.[33] In addition, people of the time certainly knew that eating spoiled food would make them sick. Similarly, the belief that pepper was widely used as a preservative is questionable; it is true that piperine, the compound that gives pepper its spiciness, has some antimicrobial properties, but at the concentrations present when pepper is used as a spice, the effect is small.[34] Salt is a much more effective preservative, and salt-cured meats were common fare, especially in winter. However, pepper and other spices certainly played a role in improving the taste of long-preserved meats.

Its exorbitant price during the Middle Ages – and the monopoly on the trade held by Italy – was one of the inducements that led the Portuguese to seek a sea route to India. In 1498, Vasco da Gama became the first person to reach India by sailing around Africa (see Age of Discovery); asked by Arabs in Calicut (who spoke Spanish and Italian) why they had come, his representative replied, "we seek Christians and spices".[35] Though this first trip to India by way of the southern tip of Africa was only a modest success, the Portuguese quickly returned in greater numbers and eventually gained much greater control of trade on the Arabian Sea. The 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas with the Spanish granted Portugal exclusive rights to the half of the world where black pepper originated.

However, the Portuguese proved unable to monopolize the spice trade. Older Arab and Venetian trade networks successfully imported enormous quantities of spices, and pepper once again flowed through Alexandria and Italy, as well as around Africa. In the 17th century, the Portuguese lost almost all of their valuable Indian Ocean trade to the Dutch and the English, who, taking advantage of the Spanish rule over Portugal during the Iberian Union (1580–1640), occupied by force almost all Portuguese interests in the area. The pepper ports of Malabar began to trade increasingly with the Dutch in the period 1661–1663.

As pepper supplies into Europe increased, the price of pepper declined (though the total value of the import trade generally did not). Pepper, which in the early Middle Ages had been an item exclusively for the rich, started to become more of an everyday seasoning among those of more average means. Today, pepper accounts for one-fifth of the world's spice trade.[36]

It is possible that black pepper was known in China in the second century BCE, if poetic reports regarding an explorer named Tang Meng (唐蒙) are correct. Sent by Emperor Wu to what is now south-west China, Tang Meng is said to have come across something called jujiang or "sauce-betel". He was told it came from the markets of Shu, an area in what is now the Sichuan province. The traditional view among historians is that "sauce-betel" is a sauce made from betel leaves, but arguments have been made that it actually refers to pepper, either long or black.[37]

In the third century CE, black pepper made its first definite appearance in Chinese texts, as hujiao or "foreign pepper". It does not appear to have been widely known at the time, failing to appear in a fourth-century work describing a wide variety of spices from beyond China's southern border, including long pepper.[38] By the 12th century, however, black pepper had become a popular ingredient in the cuisine of the wealthy and powerful, sometimes taking the place of China's native Sichuan pepper (the tongue-numbing dried fruit of an unrelated plant).[citation needed]

Marco Polo testifies to pepper's popularity in 13th-century China, when he relates what he is told of its consumption in the city of Kinsay (Hangzhou): "... Messer Marco heard it stated by one of the Great Kaan's officers of customs that the quantity of pepper introduced daily for consumption into the city of Kinsay amounted to 43 loads, each load being equal to 223 lbs."[39]

During the course of the Ming treasure voyages in the early 15th century, Admiral Zheng He and his expeditionary fleets returned with such a large amount of black pepper that the once-costly luxury became a common commodity.[40]

Like many eastern spices, pepper was historically both a seasoning and a traditional medicine. Pepper appears in the Buddhist Samaññaphala Sutta, chapter five, as one of the few medicines a monk is allowed to carry.[41] Long pepper, being stronger, was often the preferred medication, but both were used. Black pepper (or perhaps long pepper) was believed to cure several illnesses, such as constipation, insomnia, oral abscesses, sunburn, and toothaches, among others.[42] Various sources from the fifth century onward recommended pepper to treat eye problems, often by applying salves or poultices made with pepper directly to the eye. Though current medical research has yet to confirm any treatment benefit to humans, several benefits have been shown in animal modeling experiments.[43][44][45]

Pepper contains phytochemicals,[46] including amides, piperidines, pyrrolidines, and trace amounts of safrole, which may be carcinogenic in laboratory rodents.[47]

Piperine is under study for its potential to increase absorption of selenium, vitamin B12, beta-carotene, and curcumin, as well as other compounds.[48]

Pepper is known to cause sneezing. Some sources say that piperine, a substance present in black pepper, irritates the nostrils, causing the sneezing.[49] Few, if any, controlled studies have been carried out to answer the question.

Piperine is also under study for a variety of possible physiological effects,[50] although this work is preliminary and mechanisms of activity for piperine in the human body remain unknown.

One tablespoon (6 grams) of ground black pepper contains moderate amounts of vitamin K (13% of the daily value or DV), iron (10% DV), and manganese (18% DV), with trace amounts of other essential nutrients, protein, and dietary fibre.[51]

Pepper gets its spicy heat mostly from piperine derived from both the outer fruit and the seed. Black pepper contains between 4.6 and 9.7% piperine by mass, and white pepper slightly more than that.[52] Refined piperine, by weight, is about one percent as hot as the capsaicin found in chili peppers.[53] The outer fruit layer, left on black pepper, also contains aroma-contributing terpenes, including germacrene (11%), limonene (10%), pinene (10%), alpha-phellandrene (9%), and beta-caryophyllene (7%),[54] which give citrusy, woody, and floral notes. These scents are mostly missing in white pepper, as the fermentation and other processing removes the fruit layer (which also contains some of the spicy piperine). Other flavours also commonly develop in this process, some of which are described as off-flavours when in excess: Primarily 3-methylindole (pig manure-like), 4-methylphenol (horse manure), 3-methylphenol (phenolic), and butyric acid (cheese).[55] The aroma of pepper is attributed to rotundone (3,4,5,6,7,8-Hexahydro-3α,8α-dimethyl-5α-(1-methylethenyl)azulene-1(2H)-one), a sesquiterpene originally discovered in the tubers of Cyperus rotundus, which can be detected in concentrations of 0.4 nanograms/l in water and in wine: rotundone is also present in marjoram, oregano, rosemary, basil, thyme, and geranium, as well as in some Shiraz wines.[56]

Pepper loses flavour and aroma through evaporation, so airtight storage helps preserve its spiciness longer. Pepper can also lose flavour when exposed to light, which can transform piperine into nearly tasteless isochavicine.[57] Once ground, pepper's aromatics can evaporate quickly; most culinary sources recommend grinding whole peppercorns immediately before use for this reason. Handheld pepper mills or grinders, which mechanically grind or crush whole peppercorns, are used for this as an alternative to pepper shakers that dispense ground pepper. Spice mills such as pepper mills were found in European kitchens as early as the 14th century, but the mortar and pestle used earlier for crushing pepper have remained a popular method for centuries, as well.[58]

Enhancing the flavour profile of peppercorns (including piperine and essential oils), prior to processing, has been attempted through the postharvest application of ultraviolet-C light (UV-C).[59]

The spice trade started before the Common Era, with Arab merchants in the Middle East who controlled and conducted the luxury goods business along the Silk Road, an important pathway that connected Asia to the Middle East and other parts of North Africa and Europe, which eventually led to the Romans entering the market. While there are records of black pepper in ancient Greek and Roman texts, the spice was largely popularized in the late 15th century, after a discovery by the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama on the shores of Calicut (present day Kozhikode), India—the spice was so abundant, it ultimately led to Portuguese domination of the area.

Black pepper also had nutritional properties, endearing it to traders: the Greeks used it to reverse the effects of hemlock (the same poison that killed Socrates); it was also used as a cure to many ailments, such as hemorrhoids, diarrhea, and other digestive complications. Its increasing popularity led to soaring prices and ultimately valued the spice quite high, so much so that in parts of the world, people paid rents, taxes, and dowries with the spice. So popular was pepper that it earned the monikers “black gold” and “king of spices.”

While it’s no longer quite so desired, Chef Regi Mathew of Kappa Chappa Kandhari, a restaurant in Bengaluru, India, said that black pepper remains extremely crucial in South Indian cuisine, specifically in Kerala, and is used in various stews, roasts, and rasam—he even adds it to his garam masala (many regional iterations of the spice blend do not use black pepper). The humid climate and heavy rainfall in Kerala helps the vines flourish, Mathew noted, adding that the best black pepper is procured in Wayanad, a district in the state. He personally likes to use black pepper at the end of the recipe, either ground or whole, to keep the flavors intact.

While black pepper’s popularity is strong in South and Southeast Asia and Europe, it didn't make as strong a mark in East Asia (curiously, white pepper, a berry of the same plant but having undergone different processing, is quite common in culinary traditions of the area, particularly in China). Chef Leong Then, Asian Chef de Cuisine at the Four Seasons in Bengaluru, told me: “Though not used extensively, black pepper does have its place in Chinese cuisine. It isn’t hands-down spicy, but certainly has that bite to it, and gives any dish a lift, especially a stir-fry.”

“Black pepper as a spice is something that's so often overlooked,” said Sana Javeri Kadri, founder of equitable spice company Diaspora Co. “It's a kitchen staple that's taken for granted, so people don't always stop to consider how their pepper has been sourced, what sort of labor practices go into growing and harvesting it, or how good the quality is.” This attention is likely why Diaspora Co.’s Aranya Pepper—also sourced in Wayanad—which was just recently restocked, is so popular. “It’s one of our biggest sources of pride, both with regard to taste but also with how it's being produced: It's vine-ripened, hand-harvested, and sun-dried.”

Though today, for many, pepper may be just an afterthought, it’s clear from Diaspora Co. and other single-origin spice companies that it’s returning to the front of mind—when grown and harvested thoughtfully.

“All black pepper, regardless of where it's grown, is from the same species of plant, so when you taste differences between them, what you're actually tasting is the terroir—the climate, the soil, and the expertise of the farmer who grew them,” said Ethan Frisch, co-founder of Burlap & Barrel. “It's easy to tell when black pepper is grown by a really good farmer—you'll taste the intensity and complexity that's missing from commodity spices.”

More and more, chefs also hope to avoid seeing pepper dismissed as just something to place on the table in a shaker next to salt. “There’s been a huge increase in the use of black pepper over the last two decades, and we are definitely seeing it used more steadily and liberally,” said Anshu Anghotra, Executive Head Chef at The Connaught in London.

Executive Chef Mario Perera of The Dorchester, London, who hails from Sri Lanka, feels the same way. For him, “black pepper is one of my top five favorite spices, and a key ingredient for my cooking. Given my roots, flavor, seasoning, and spice are very important to my heritage and have heavily influenced my cooking.”

The humble black peppercorns in the grinder next to the salt, the same ones you might crush over your Caesar salad, use to encrust a steak, toast for cacio e pepe, or sprinkle on scrambled eggs, have never been better in quality — or more available to home cooks around the world — as in our current era.

This was not always so. Pepper was once expensive, rare, and incredibly in-demand, so highly prized that in 410 A.D., Visigoths demanded 3,000 pounds of black pepper as part of their ransom for the city of Rome, which fascinated whole civilizations across Europe and Asia. Pepper powered the economies of entire nations. It was one of the driving forces of a spice trade that led to the oppressive system of European colonialism and its lingering historical consequences for huge swaths of humanity.

Today, black pepper remains the most popular spice on the planet, accounting for such a large part of the global spice trade that you can track its price as a commodity alongside wheat, corn, and rice. According to market research company IMARC, in 2021, the black pepper market was valued at $3.9 billion, with projections that it will grow to $5.4 billion by 2027. And yet, now that pepper is never that far away from our fingertips, it is too often underappreciated.

Black pepper is the dried berry of a flowering vine called Piper nigrum, which fruits in clusters like grapes. Technically, peppercorns are drupes, or stone fruits, like cherries and peaches. To make black pepper, farmers harvest the still-green unripe peppercorns and dry them either by machine or in the sun, which causes the thin fruit layer to darken and wither, raisin-like, around the seed, resulting in the characteristic dark, puckered peppercorns you load into your pepper grinder.

Between the farmers who picked the peppercorns and your dining room table, there are many middlemen, processors, and wheeler-dealers obfuscating the origin and treatment of black pepper. It’s a supply chain with a great deal of intentional opacity, and the boom in high-quality pepper today is due in large part to efforts over the past couple of decades to make that system more transparent.

Because pepper is globally traded, a booming crop in, say, Vietnam means that a farmer in Brazil would get a lower price for their crop. Their only recourse would be to then sit on the peppercorns until prices go up to sell them, meaning that by the time peppercorns reach the grocery store shelves, they could be several years old. “If you go back to a few years ago, pepper was being very poorly cared for post-harvest, and the effect of that was [that] everything was [focused on] reconditioning instead of preserving the original quality,” says Mark Barnett, former owner of spice company Pacific Basin Partnership Inc.

When Barnett first began exporting spices from Vietnam in 1994, just after the U.S. lifted its trade embargo with the system, he saw farmers drying peppercorns in the middle of the road, often in proximity to horses and dogs. In partnership with the farmers, he worked to shorten supply routes and change drying and sterilization processes so that there was a more consistent, higher-quality crop exported. In the past few decades, the general quality of pepper has improved exponentially as similar methods have become more widespread.

Also in the past decade, a crop of spice companies including Burlap & Barrel, Mala Market, Diaspora Co., and Frontier Co-Op have been working to make the spice trade system still more equitable and transparent, resulting in better wages for farmers and a fresher end product for pepper enthusiasts. In a culinary world where people concentrate on local produce and sustainably sourced seafood, a new chorus of voices hopes to bring that same understanding to spices and in particular to peppercorns — the ingredient that Sana Javeri Kadri, founder and CEO of spice company Diaspora Co., calls “the gateway to spices.” (For the best sustainably sourced pepper for your kitchen, see “Guide to Pepper,” below.)

The fact that commodity pepper goes through many hands means that there’s plenty of opportunity for unscrupulous spice traders to adulterate pepper or trade off cheaper, lower-quality peppercorns for export. “When we export the pepper, we have to disclose the price that we pay for it to the export-import authority, and they give us hell,” says Kadri, who sources Diaspora Co.’s Aranya Black Pepper from Kerala, India. “They’re like, ‘Why are your customers in America paying so much for this? Do you want to just sell them some commodity pepper and continue to get the same price?’ It’s just too tempting for them to want to include some kind of scam because so many exporters are shortcutting and coming up with other ways to pull this stuff off.”

They are new supply chains that need to be built, painstakingly, from scratch because the past systems were so rife with injustice. Kadri compares it to the reframing of coffee in the past 30 years. “Coffee was always just a commodity, and what has happened in the past 20 years with the specialty coffee industry is it created a whole new world,” Kadri says. “I think that’s what needs to happen in the world of spices.” The increase in supply chain equality isn’t just good for pepper producers and workers, but for anyone who loves pepper.

The golden age of pepper also means that cooking with peppercorns right now is just plain exciting. There’s a reason that pepper is the king of spices — it offers a way into a vast number of cuisines. There is a huge world within those tiny peppercorns, and all you need to access it is a grinder. There are many different varieties of pepper, and even more ways to cook with them.

The mature berries of a flowering vine are dried to create black pepper. Within black pepper, there are many flavor nuances. “A number of factors determine a peppercorn’s flavor, including the terroir, where and how it’s grown, and when it’s harvested in the ripening cycle,” explains Ethan Frisch, cofounder of spice company Burlap & Barrel. If peppercorns are allowed to ripen on the vine rather than being harvested while green, for example, the peppercorns have a mellower, fruitier, balsamic-like flavor. Frisch describes pepper from Zanzibar as “super lemony,” while other peppercorns might pick up notes of chocolate, coffee, or herbs. (We especially love the Aranya Black Pepper from Diaspora Co., which has rich notes of nutmeg and fig.)

Green peppercorns are the same berries as black pepper, but freeze-dried, brined, or used fresh. These dried, immature pepper berries have a bright, herbaceous flavor. Fresh green peppercorns, available sometimes at Thai supermarkets or sold as brined online, give tiny pops of heat and freshness to dishes, like spicy capers. If brined instead of dried, they make a salty, zesty, caper-like ingredient.

White peppercorns are the seeds of the berries that have been denuded of the fruit layer. In French cooking, white pepper is typically used for aesthetic purposes, to prevent black dots from coloring lighter-hued dishes. In some Southeast Asian countries, white pepper is made by leaving the peppercorns in water to remove the fruit, fermenting the pepper, which gives it a pleasing, cheese-like funkiness. (We especially recommend Burlap & Barrel’s Fermented White Peppercorns. Sourced from a farm in Indonesia, they have a funky, umami flavor.)

Pink peppercorns have nothing to do with Piper nigrum but come from one of three plants: Schinus molle, native to Peru; Schinus terebinthifolius, the Brazilian pepper tree; or Euonymus phellomanus, aka the baies rose plant, from Madagascar. The more mellow profile of pink peppercorns lends itself well to sweet applications like ice cream, and desserts like our Pink Peppercorn Cheesecake. (We recommend the fruity, delicate pink peppercorns from Spice Walla).

Szechuan and sansho pepper are the dried fruits of two kinds of trees in the prickly ash family. They both deliver a pungent, citrusy flavor and give a buzzing, tingling sensation to the mouth.  Sansho peppercorns from Japan are green and have a more lemony flavor. Chinese Szechuan peppercorns are often toasted, giving them a woodsiness and a beautiful red-pink color. Their signature numbing and tingly properties, are perfect to riff on traditional Szechuan dishes like mapo tofu or even to grind on top of popcorn. Fermented white peppercorns offer a deeply umami, cheese-like tang to Indonesian dishes like nasi goreng and Perkedel Kentang, as well as to vegan cacio e pepe. (Order high-quality Szechuan peppercorns from The Mala Market.)

Black pepper is native to Malabar, a tropical region on the Western Coast of Southern India (part of the Indian state of Kerala). The pepper vine is a perennial ivy-like climber which adheres itself to a support tree or man-made structure.

You’re whipping up soup for dinner, what do you reach for? Black pepper. You’re topping off each dish for Thanksgiving with what? Black pepper!

Nearly everything we eat tastes better with some freshly ground pepper. But what are those round, black kernels we grind up every day? Where does pepper come from?

These fragrant, spicy, and wrinkly kernels come from a plant called Piper nigrum and taste anything like what they really are—fruit!

Surprisingly, peppercorns are the fruit of Piper nigrum or the “black pepper plant”. Clusters of peppercorns grow in green cylinders on the vine and contain little fruit, but thin skins and a single seed inside.

So where does black pepper come from? The plant needs a tropical climate to thrive and often attaches itself to nearby trees. On the vine, the berries look pretty similar to grapes. Even when peppercorns are harvested to become black pepper, they’re green like tiny peas.

Piper nigrum originates in India, but now Vietnam grows and exports one-third of the world’s supply. The other two-thirds are produced in combination with India, Brazil, and Indonesia.

The historical significance of black pepper is more profound than you might think. Black peppercorns were so coveted that trade routes were built around securing the aromatic spice. As early as 1000 BC, India developed spice routes with the Middle East so that more of the world could get their hands on “black gold”. In many ways, the history of pepper is intertwined with the history we know of the modern world.

Ancient societies held pepper in such high regard that it was used for currency in Rome and it’s rumored that one pound of peppercorns could buy a French serf their freedom. Even though it was so highly valued, ancient cultures did cook with pepper as we do today. It often topped dishes to show extraordinary wealth in a household.

Some familiar names even played a role in the boom of black pepper. In the 15th century when Christopher Columbus set sail, he was on the hunt for a more efficient spice route to the East Indies for these exotic spices. Peppercorns even made their way into the mummification process and Ramses II was discovered with peppercorns in his nose. The medicinal uses for black pepper were also a key part of its rise to fame.

As trade routes increased and demand soared for black pepper, it lost its value and became the pepper we know today.

Piper nigrum takes four years to mature but can be harvested for seven years. Once a couple of the green berries begin to turn red on the vine, the vines are picked and separated from the peppercorns.

So by now, you might be wondering, how is pepper made? To become the black peppercorns we know in our grinders, the fruit is dried either by the sun or a machine. It ferments and certain enzymes cause the skin to become black and wrinkle. These are either ground and packaged or put in a grinder for on-the-spot use by the purchaser.

Generally, ground pepper only keeps 3-4 months while whole peppercorns last over a year. They also differ in taste. Since whole peppercorns are ground as needed, oils are released by the peppercorn as it breaks down. This is why there’s a stronger flavor associated with freshly ground pepper! In comparison, pre-ground pepper has a less robust and pungent taste.

You might have heard about other types of pepper in your culinary explorations and it’s no farce. In addition to black and white, there are also green, red, and pink peppercorns!

Especially popular in Thai cuisine, white peppercorns are derived from the same Piper nigrum pepper plant and cultivated similarly, but the berry becomes fully ripened, making it red. Once this happens, the berry is soaked and the outer layer of flesh is removed, yielding just the white peppercorn seed. White pepper has more bite than black pepper, and it’s noticeably more herbal.

Since most peppercorns are derived from green peppercorns, these are also from the same species. These are under ripened berries straight from the vine that are often preserved in brine instead of dried as black peppercorns are. Green peppercorns are fresh and tart, unlike their spicy cousins.

If the Piper nigrum berries are left on the vine long enough, they turn a brilliant, sharp red. Because red peppercorns are usually stripped away to become white peppercorns or dried to become black peppercorns, it’s rare to find red peppercorns on their own. Typically, they can be found added to black peppercorn grinders for a bit of flair or sold separately at health food stores. They’re generally milder in flavor than their counterparts.

These tricky cousins aren’t from Piper nigrum, but instead come from a plant called the Peruvian Peppertree. They look similar to peppercorns, but they’re actually berries that need to be crushed instead of ground.

The pink peppercorn’s brush with fame began in the 80s as a way to add color to lackluster dishes. They taste slightly peppery, but at a small cost: they might be toxic. The jury is still out, but after the Food and Drug Administration clashed with France over importing the potentially toxic berries, they lost their appeal.

The toxicity many associate with pink peppercorn might be a small allergy and there have been issues with farmers who handle them often having adverse effects.