58 Fun Facts About Spice

Which spice is the world's most expensive by weight?

Saffron is the priciest spice by weight: premium grades top US$5,000 per kilogram because every thread is picked by hand from crocus flowers.

The threads of the crocus-derived spice are which part of the flower?

The threads are the stigmas and styles, the red female parts of the crocus flower; each bloom yields only three of them.

Which country produces around 90% of the world's crocus-thread spice?

Iran grows roughly 90% of the world's crop, mostly in Khorasan province; Afghanistan is a distant second and Spain's La Mancha harvest is famous but small.

Roughly how many crocus flowers does it take to make one kilogram of the dried threads?

About 150,000 crocus flowers, each giving only three threads, go into one kilogram of the dried spice, which is why it is harvested by hand.

Black pepper is made from the unripe fruit of a vine native to which region?

Piper nigrum is native to South Asia's Malabar Coast, where Roman traders were buying it two thousand years ago.

How does white pepper differ from black pepper?

White pepper is only the seed of the ripe fruit: the berries are soaked and the outer flesh rubbed off, leaving a milder, paler spice.

Which country led world black pepper production in 2023 with about 30% of the total?

Vietnam led 2023 output with roughly 30% of the world's peppercorns, well ahead of Brazil and Indonesia.

Peppercorns were found stuffed in the nostrils of which Egyptian pharaoh's mummy?

Black peppercorns were found in the nostrils of Ramesses II, who died in 1213 BC, proof that Egypt traded with the Malabar Coast over 3,000 years ago.

Pink peppercorns are actually the fruit of what?

The plant belongs to the Anacardiaceae, the same family as cashews and mangoes, which is why some allergy sufferers avoid them.

The heat in pepper comes mainly from which compound?

Piperine, an alkaloid that makes up 5–9% of black pepper by weight, provides the heat; chili heat comes from the unrelated compound capsaicin.

Cinnamon is obtained from which part of the tree?

Cinnamon is the inner bark of Cinnamomum trees; stripped from young shoots, it curls into quills as it dries.

'True' or Ceylon cinnamon takes its name from the former name of which country?

Ceylon was the colonial name of Sri Lanka, home of Cinnamomum verum; most supermarket cinnamon is actually cassia, which carries far more coumarin.

Herodotus claimed cinnamon sticks were collected by giant what?

The 'cinnamon bird' story helped Arabian traders hide the spice's real source for centuries.

Mace is a spice made from what part of the nutmeg?

Mace is the reddish seed covering, a lacy aril peeled off the nutmeg seed and dried separately, giving two spices from one fruit.

Under the 1667 Treaty of Breda, England gave up nutmeg island Run and kept which territory?

England kept New Amsterdam (Manhattan), seized in 1664, while the Dutch kept Run; at the time a sack of nutmeg looked like the better end of the deal.

The nutmeg tree is native to which island group?

Nutmeg is native to the Banda Islands in the Moluccas; the Dutch East India Company waged a bloody campaign against the Bandanese in 1621 to secure a monopoly.

Eating large amounts of nutmeg can cause poisoning from which compound?

Myristicin, a psychoactive compound in nutmeg oil, causes the nausea, palpitations and hallucinations of nutmeg poisoning, which is why nutmeg 'highs' tend to end badly.

Vanilla comes from the seed pods of what kind of plant?

Vanilla planifolia is a climbing orchid whose flowers open for just one day; its cured seed pods give the flavour, first cultivated by the Totonac of Veracruz.

In 1841, who discovered vanilla could be hand-pollinated, enabling cultivation outside Mexico?

Edmond Albius, a 12-year-old enslaved boy on Réunion, devised the thumb-and-stick pollination method in 1841, and growers worldwide adopted it.

Which island supplies, together with Indonesia, about two-thirds of the world's vanilla?

Madagascar, whose Sava region grows most Bourbon vanilla, and Indonesia together supply about two-thirds of world output.

The word 'vanilla' comes from a Spanish word meaning what?

Vainilla means 'little pod': it is the diminutive of Spanish vaina, 'sheath' or 'pod', named for the bean-like fruit.

Cloves are what part of the Syzygium aromaticum tree?

Cloves are the dried flower buds of Syzygium aromaticum, picked pink before they open; the tree is native to Indonesia's Maluku Islands.

In Indonesia, cloves are famously blended into which product?

Kretek cigarettes blend tobacco with ground cloves that crackle as they burn; Indonesia, the largest clove grower, smokes most of its own crop this way.

Eugenol, which makes up 72-90% of clove oil, is chiefly responsible for what?

Dentists have long used it as a numbing antiseptic, which is why the dentist's office smells of cloves.

Chili pepper heat is measured in units named after which pharmacist, who devised the test in 1912?

Wilbur Scoville, a pharmacist, devised the Scoville Organoleptic Test in 1912, using panels of tasters who diluted extracts until the burn disappeared.

Capsicum plants, the ancestors of all chili peppers, originated in which region?

The wild Capsicum genus arose in Peru and Bolivia; chilies were being eaten by about 7500 BC and were domesticated in Mexico some 6,000 years ago.

Why did Columbus's crew call the fiery Capsicum fruits 'peppers'?

Columbus called them pimienta because they were pungent like black pepper, the costly spice he was seeking; the misnomer stuck as the Portuguese carried chilies to Africa and Asia.

Chipotle is the smoke-dried form of which chili?

A chipotle is a ripe red jalapeño that has been smoke-dried; the name comes from the Nahuatl chilpoctli, 'smoked chili'.

Which country grew nearly half of the world's chilies and peppers in 2022?

China grew around 16 million tonnes of green chilies and peppers in 2022, close to half the world total and far ahead of Mexico and Turkey.

In the 2020s, after the two costliest spices, which was the third most expensive by weight?

Cardamom, the green seed pods of a ginger relative native to the Western Ghats, ranked third by price in the 2020s; every pod is picked by hand just before it ripens.

Which Central American country became the world's top producer of the green-pod spice in 1979-80?

Guatemala became the top grower in 1979-80 after German coffee planters had introduced the crop to its Alta Verapaz highlands early in the 20th century.

Which compound gives curry powder its characteristic golden colour?

Curcumin, a bright yellow polyphenol, colours curry powder; paper soaked in it turns reddish-brown in alkali, which is why it works as a pH indicator.

Star anise is the main commercial source of shikimic acid, a precursor of which drug?

Shikimic acid extracted from star anise is the industrial starting material for Tamiflu (oseltamivir); its toxic Japanese cousin, Illicium anisatum, must never be confused with it.

Star anise and the unrelated anise plant share their liquorice flavour thanks to which compound?

Anethole, which makes up most of both essential oils, gives star anise and true anise their shared liquorice flavour even though the two plants are unrelated.

The English coined 'allspice' around 1621 because the berry seemed to combine which three flavours?

It is the dried unripe berry of a Caribbean tree, and Jamaica remains the leading source.

Szeged and Kalocsa are the two principal growing regions for which spice in Hungary?

Albert Szent-Györgyi used the local peppers as a source of vitamin C in the work that won him the 1937 Nobel Prize.

Spain's pimentón de la Vera gets its distinctive smoky flavour from being dried how?

Pimentón de la Vera is dried slowly over oak-wood smoke in the drying houses of Extremadura's La Vera valley, a process that takes around two weeks.

The tingling numbness of Sichuan pepper comes from which compound?

Hydroxy-alpha sanshool triggers touch-sensitive nerves, producing the tingling, buzzing numbness; the 'peppercorn' is the husk of a Zanthoxylum shrub unrelated to black pepper or chili.

Why did the US FDA ban imports of Sichuan peppercorns from 1968 to 2005?

The ban was lifted once heat-treatment of the peppercorns was required.

Which country produces about 70% of the world's cumin?

India grows around 70% of the world's cumin, mostly in Gujarat and Rajasthan; ancient Egyptians used the seed as a preservative in mummification.

Ginger was most likely first domesticated by which seafaring peoples?

It originated in Maritime Southeast Asia; today India grows about 45% of the world's crop.

Most 'wasabi' served outside Japan is actually a mixture based on what?

Most 'wasabi' paste is horseradish mixed with mustard and green colouring; real wasabi needs shade, cool temperatures and running water, so it is scarce and expensive.

The burn of wasabi is felt mainly where?

Wasabi's volatile allyl isothiocyanate rises into the nasal passage rather than clinging to the tongue, which is why the burn hits the nose and fades quickly.

Dijon mustard was born in 1856 when Jean Naigeon replaced vinegar with what?

Jean Naigeon's 1856 substitution of verjuice, the tart juice of unripe grapes, for vinegar gave Dijon mustard its smoother, sharper style; 'mustard' itself comes from Latin mustum, grape must.

American yellow mustard gets its bright colour from which spice?

Turmeric gives American yellow mustard its bright colour; the mild yellow mustard seeds and a high proportion of vinegar make it far gentler than Dijon.

Sotolon, the compound that gives fenugreek its smell, is why the spice is used to flavour imitation what?

Sotolon gives fenugreek its burnt-sugar aroma, which is why the seed is used to flavour imitation maple syrup and why eating a lot of it makes sweat smell sweet.

Which city held a monopoly on the spice trade with the Middle East from the 8th to the 15th century?

Venice controlled the flow of Eastern spices into Europe through its Levant trade for centuries; breaking that monopoly drove Portugal to seek a sea route east, achieved by Vasco da Gama in 1498.

Which spice is the dried resin of Ferula plants, nicknamed 'devil's dung'?

Asafoetida is the dried latex tapped from Ferula roots; raw it smells sulphurous, hence 'devil's dung', but fried in oil it turns oniony and savoury.

Unlike spices, herbs are defined as which parts of a plant?

Herbs are the leaves, flowers or stems of a plant, while spices come from seeds, bark, roots or fruit; coriander is both, its leaf an herb and its seed a spice.

The world's largest spice company, maker of Old Bay and French's, was founded in 1889 in which city?

Willoughby McCormick, aged 25, founded McCormick & Company in a Baltimore cellar in 1889; its headquarters later moved to Hunt Valley, Maryland.

Which ancient Egyptian medical text of about 1550 BCE lists some 800 herbal remedies?

The Ebers Papyrus, dated to about 1550 BCE, runs to 110 columns and lists around 800 herbal remedies and prescriptions; the Edwin Smith Papyrus is a surgical text.

In the Book of Genesis, Joseph is sold by his brothers to merchants trading in what?

Genesis 37 has Ishmaelite traders carrying spices, balm and myrrh down to Egypt; they buy Joseph from his brothers for twenty pieces of silver.

Historians largely reject the claim that medieval Europeans used spices for what purpose?

Historians reject the idea that spices were for masking spoiled meat: spices cost far more than fresh meat, and medieval cookbooks add them late in cooking for flavour and display.

Merchants from which Adriatic maritime republic, now in Croatia, competed in the medieval spice trade?

Ragusa is modern Dubrovnik; its merchants carried Levantine spices across the Adriatic into the Balkans, and the republic stayed independent until Napoleon abolished it in 1808.

Which East African island became the world's leading clove grower under Sultan Said in the 1800s?

Zanzibar became the leading clove producer after Sultan Said bin Sultan moved his court there from Oman in 1840 and planted the island with clove trees.

Vasco da Gama's 1497 fleet crossed the Indian Ocean to which Malabar Coast port, seat of the Zamorin?

Da Gama reached Calicut, the Zamorin's capital, in May 1498 after a pilot hired at Malindi guided his four ships across the Indian Ocean.

Which Portuguese commander conquered Malacca, then the centre of Asian trade, in 1511?

Afonso de Albuquerque took Malacca in August 1511, then sent António de Abreu east to find the nutmeg and clove islands, which his ships reached in 1512.

Which 1st-century Roman cookbook contains many recipes using black pepper?

Apicius, the Roman recipe collection attributed to the 1st-century gourmet Marcus Gavius Apicius, calls for pepper in most of its dishes, from sauces to sweets.