|
|
||
| Fabulous
Deals on Peppercorns!
Peppercorn Types:
Other Spices:
Site Links: Pages of Interest: |
||
|
Peppercorns are also known as "the king of
spices" or "the master spice".
History: Peppercorns have a long history of use as a condiment and a currency during human civilization. Peppercorns were first used as spice more than 4000 years ago and then later as a type of "currency" to facilitate trade during the Middle Ages. Ungrounded pepper made a good currency because it retains its flavor and thus intrinsic value for a long period of time. During the Middle Ages, a day of hard work was not even worth 1 ounces of pepper! Peppercorns were even considered as valuable as gold because of their extremely long life. Pepper was the first spice used in Europe and it came to have great social and economic value there. Up until the 19th century, pepper was a luxury only the rich could afford. Pepper became affordable to the average person in the early 1800s. Because of its value, many explores and traders, including Christopher Columbus, risked there lives trying to find new trade routs to the far east so they could acquire peppercorns and other exotic spices. In fact, Columbus thought he had reached the Spice Islands on the west coast of India when he discovered America. Having not reached India, Columbus could find no peppercorns to bring home. Instead he brought back the closest thing to them he could find, the fruit of a new world plant now known as chili peppers. Columbus called this new spice "pepper", creating a confusion of the two spices that persists today.
Facts: Even today, many poor families in Asia often keep stashes of this prized spice as a type of savings for a rainy day. Peppercorns are the most widely traded spice in the world with Americans eating an average of over 1/4lb. per person per year. |
||
|
|
|
|
|
We cannot take returns on edible items. |
||
And 