If you were rich, you could afford pepper. If you were arrogantly rich, you always displayed some pepper fruit on the dining table. In the 1500s, a monk Bartholomeus wrote, “Pepper is the fruit from a woody vine in the Caucasus Mountains where it grows in the hottest sunshine.” This pepper forest is also replete with poisonous snakes. When the fruit ripens, locals set fire to the forest. The poisonous snakes flee. However the flames and smoke make the pepper fruits tangier, with differing ripeness: black, red or white.
Pepper originated in the Western Ghats region—A chain of mountains running parallel to India’s western coast, traversing the States of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Archeological findings date its use in India to 2000 BCE, prized for both flavor and medicinal use. It quickly became a coveted commodity, traded along ancient spice routes with Egypt and Rome.
Peppers grow in clusters (like grapes) on the woody vine. They are harvested in various stages of growth. Green peppercorns are young when they are picked and dehydrated. They have a mild flavor. Black peppercorns are left on the vine to fully mature and develop a stronger flavor. Red Peppercorns are peppercorns that are left on the vine until they are fully ripened. They are the most difficult to find and also the most expensive. White peppercorns are actually black peppercorns which have been soaked to remove the outer casing. This gives the white peppercorns a more intense flavor.
Black pepper was so coveted in the Ancient World that it was known by merchants and travelers as “black gold.” The global popularity of pepper followed the rise of the Roman Empire. The Romans brought pepper from the East to the western shores of continental Europe to use as an exotic, if expensive, spice. Pepper was weighed like gold. In AD 410, when Rome was captured, 3,000 pounds of pepper were demanded as ransom. Spices were valued so highly in former times that they were stored and transported by expensive methods such as brass portable spice-boxes.
Today the pepper trade encompasses the whole world with Western Europe, United States, with Japan and Korea being the biggest consumers. The main pepper producing countries are Vietnam, India, Indonesia, Brazil, Malaysia, China and Sri Lanka. Vietnam exports virtually all their production, since the Vietnamese do not use much pepper in their diet. Pepper is an important ingredient in Ayurvedic, Chinese and other traditional medicines. The main therapeutic uses of pepper are as a digestive and as a tonic.
