Steenbergs Organic Allspice Ground

Steenbergs Organic Allspice Ground is a powdered aromatic berry from the Caribbean region. It’s called allspice because its flavour is like a combination of pepper, cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Steenbergs sources the highest quality organic Allspice Ground, which is hand packed in small batches to give you the best organic allspice we can find, which are then ground down to a fine powder.

Organic Allspice Ground has hints of cinnamon, clove and nutmeg. Allspice is a great baking spice, so use in cakes, biscuits and mixed spice or add a pinch to stewed fruits. Ground allspice is a must for Jamaican Jerk rubs or used to flavour red meat, seafood or sprinkle over cooked carrots or parsnips.

Axel’s Tasting Notes: Aroma – Warm and fragrant like cloves. Flavour – Distinct taste of cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg; a slight numbing tingling late on – only slight hints of pepper.

Food Pairing: Fruit pies or compôte (apple, pear), fruit salad, spinach, mixed spices, Jamaican Jerk seasoning.

More about Allspice

Allspice is the dried unripe berry of the tropical evergreen tree, Pimenta dioica. Allspice is common in Jamaica, so is sometimes called Jamaica pepper. It also comes from Cuba, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico.

Allspice trees grow to 6 – 10 m tall. They have slender upright trunks. The tree blossoms in August when succulent berries form and are picked. The berries are fully grown, but unripe, and have a greenish-purple colour.

The whole allspice berries are dried in the sun in yards called barbecues till they take on a dark brown colour. The berries are light and brittle about the size of peas, with each corn consisting of two kidney-shaped flattish seeds that you can sometimes hear rattling inside the dry berry.

The flavour of allspice is from ‘sweating’ the unripe, dried berries. The sun-warmed berries are covered with a tarpaulin to keep the heat in. This encourages subtle enzymatic changes that unlock the clove, cinnamon and nutmeg flavours.