Spicy

India became the jewel in the British empire's crown for its resources: silk, cotton, cashmere, coal, peacocks....and the spices. Oh the spices!

First it was pepper (the trading of which was first monopolized by the Portuguese), then the western world work up to the delights of cinnamon, cloves and cardamom. The south of India (and Sri Lanka - Ceylon as was) were ground zero for these fabulous and lucrative resources, and remains a mainstay of production for India.

Pepper was originally "discovered" in Kochi, Kerala, and it is now quite easy and cheap to find at shops all over the world. There is black pepper, white pepper and pink pepper, which, like differnt kinds of tea, is all from one plants, with only differences in production resulting in the different colours. But some spices are harder to grow elsewhere, and rarer and thus expensive. They are also often sold in shops that do not particularly care if the product is as fresh as it should be, as shoppers don't really know what they should look for.

We spent and afternoon near Thekkady in Kerala in a spice plantation that was like a candy store for bakers and spice afficionados. I was giddy with delight! In that short time I learned a few things that will forever inform my spice purchasing knowledge.

For example:

Peppercorns (as aforementioned) can come in different colours but are the same plant

peppercorns growing in their natural habitat

Cardamom should be a rich green in colour and not at all yellow - that would mean it is getting stale and losing flavour.

fresh cardamom, unripe, but these little seeds were amazing to the taste!

no wonder it's so expensive, lots of plant for few berries,
and manual labour to pick them

flower and berry

the colour cardamom should be

True cinnamon (cinnamomum verum) should break into the hands like sawdust, and not be formed in dark, hard, curled sticks (that is known as cassia).

shaving bark off the cinnamon tree

Vanilla beans should be so flexible they will wind around your finger easily. You can take a 1 inch piece of vanilla and make 4 litres of vanilla-milk, then wipe it off, put it away somewhere airtight, and use it again 5 or 6 times.

Feb. is not the right season yet for vanilla pods on this vanilla vine

Mace is an orangey membrane that grows over the nutmeg, both of which will last about 4 years if kept airtight. Grating a little nutmeg into hot water or milk will help you sleep.

mace (orange bit) over nutmeg (out of shell)

Allspice is not a collection of a variety of spices, but is an actual spice itself, found in small dark brown berry form.

Turmeric should not be yellow or, god forbid, white, but more orange in colour. Yellow or white indicates the healthy antiinflammatory, antifungal, antibaterial and antioxident properties of curcumin have been removed. It is a rhizome, that grows in the ground like a root, like ginger and using it fresh is the best way to use it in cooking (especially if you can find it fresh). The other best way is using curcumin extract. You would have to eat a lot of orange powdered turmeric to get sufficient health benefits.

fresh turmeric

The most expensive spice is saffron (not grown in Kerala), then vanilla and then cardamom.

The plantation also grew coffee - both kinds: arabica and robusta (the latter is more commonly drunk in India)

robusta is the smaller, redder variety

two coffee beans inside each berry

robusta coffee berries