Where Do Peppercorns Come From? Black, White, Green, Red & Pink Explained

Peppercorns, those fragrant little black BB-sized spheres with rough, wrinkled skin. We have all spilled them, cooked with them, and watched in anticipation as a waiter approached the table with a large wooden contraption to ceremoniously grind them over our salads and pasta. We know what they look like and what they taste like, but where do they come from? The short answer: a vine in the tropics that has shaped trade routes for two thousand years (the Britannica entry on black pepper traces the route from Kerala to Rome).

Peppercorns: The Tiny Fruit

Peppercorns are actually a tiny fruit, the drupe (a fruit with a single seed in the middle) of a flowering vine known as Piper nigrum, grown in tropical regions, native to the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. Some of the best peppercorns in the world come from the Malabar Coast in the Indian state of Kerala. Vietnam now grows the largest volume by far (over a third of global supply), but Kerala still defines what high-grade pepper smells like in a cook’s mind.

Once a luxury item only available to the wealthy, peppercorns and the resulting ground pepper, particularly black pepper, are now one of the most common culinary spices, added with salt to almost every dish we eat. In medieval Europe, rent and dowries were sometimes paid in pepper by weight. Pliny the Elder complained in the first century that Rome was bleeding silver to India for it. Today, a jar costs three dollars.

Colors And Degrees of Ripeness

The color of the various peppercorns you see in the store is a result of either when the tiny fruits are harvested, or the type of processing they undergo after picking.

Black pepper and black peppercorns start as green peppercorns, the unripe fruit of the Piper nigrum plant. The fruits grow in long, thin bunches on the vine, clustered somewhat like grapes. These bright green fruits are first briefly cooked, then sun-dried. During the drying process, enzymes turn the skin a dark brown, almost black, and cause the outer skin of the fruit to contract and wrinkle.

Black peppercorns have been traded across the world since ancient times. They have even shown up in the nostrils of the mummy of Rameses II in ancient Egypt, presumably used along with other fragrant spices as part of the mummification process.

Green peppercorns are the same species and harvested at the same stage. Instead of cooking and sun-drying, the unripe drupes are treated with preservatives, including sulfur dioxide, to retard the enzymes that normally darken the skins. Sometimes green peppercorns are brined like pickles. They are slightly more perishable than black, and they taste fresher and grassier.

White peppercorns are made from the same fruit as the black and green varieties, but the fruit is allowed to fully ripen, when it turns red. The fruits are then soaked to soften the flesh, which is eventually removed, leaving just the whitish seed, which is dried. White pepper is popular in Thai cuisine and is frequently used in light-colored sauces or dishes where the dark specks of black pepper would be considered unattractive. It has a softer, earthier heat that lingers at the back of the palate.

Red peppercorns are produced much like green peppercorns, only using the fully ripe red fruit, treated to preserve the color. These may also be pickled or dried before use. In gourmet markets you will see a mixture of dried black, red, green, and white peppercorns together in a transparent grinder. This is as much for show as for flavor, but it represents all the stages of the Piper nigrum plant. Chefs generally agree that black pepper’s pungent flavor tends to overpower the more subtle green, white, or red. Keep the varieties separate first and taste them individually before deciding how to blend them in your grinder.

Pink peppercorns are another variety not related to Piper nigrum. They are the dried berries of a South American shrub, Schinus molle and Schinus terebinthifolius, also known as the Peruvian Pepper Tree. You may also see these colorful peppercorns sold as Brazilian Pepper. They are used in a variety of traditional medicinal preparations as well as in culinary applications. Pink peppercorns taste sweeter and almost fruity; a few people with cashew or pistachio allergies react to them (they share a plant family), so flag the bowl if you are serving guests with nut allergies.

Peppercorn Colors at a Glance

Health Benefits of Black Pepper

In addition to the zesty flavor pepper adds to dishes, black pepper carries real health perks. It is an antioxidant and antibacterial. One of the more useful effects: pepper stimulates the release of stomach acid, improving the digestion of proteins. Related to that is pepper’s ability to act as a carminative, a fancy way of saying it helps prevent the formation of intestinal gas. Piperine, the active compound in pepper, has also been shown to boost the absorption of curcumin (the active in turmeric) by as much as 2,000 percent, which is why most turmeric supplements pair the two.

Whichever peppercorns you choose, try toasting them slightly in a dry frying pan to activate the volatile compounds in the essential oils. Allow to cool, then grind. Most whole spices benefit from this practice, which intensifies their flavor.

Delicious Peppercorn Sauce Recipe

Ingredients:

• 2 teaspoons peppercorns, briefly toasted in a dry skillet, allowed to cool, then cracked lightly using a flat-bottomed heavy pan.
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 teaspoons minced shallots
• 1 cup beef stock, splash of brandy
• 1 tablespoon tapioca starch or cornstarch, mixed with 1 tablespoon water to form a slurry; sea salt to taste
• 1/3 cup heavy cream

Instructions:

1. Sauté shallots in butter until translucent.
2. Add peppercorns and fry for 30 seconds or so.
3. Add brandy, allow alcohol to cook off, then add beef stock.
4. Bring to a boil and allow to reduce a bit.
5. Add tapioca starch slurry.
6. Simmer for a minute, then reduce heat and stir in heavy cream.
7. Serve over grilled ribeye steak, or breaded and fried veal, pork, or chicken cutlets.

Peppercorn FAQ

For more on the spice rack, read our companion pieces: what the heck are garlic scapes, our guide to planting fall garlic, and the cilantro-versus-coriander piece, the great cilantro debate.

Edward Higgins

Edward Higgins is a freelance writer, artist, home chef, and avid fly fisherman who lives outside of Portland, Maine. He studied at Skidmore College and Harvard University. His article 10 Best Edible Insects appears in the 2020 Farmers' Almanac.

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