Steenbergs Organic Allspice

Steenbergs Organic Allspice is an aromatic dried berry. It’s called allspice because its flavour is like a combination of pepper, cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg. Whole berries also work really well when stewing fruit, add to tomato soup or grind to flavour red meat, seafood or sprinkle over cooked spinach, or use in pickles.

Steenbergs sources great quality organic allspice berries from the Caribbean Region, which it hand packs down in small batches to preserve freshness. Allspice is grown in the Caribbean and tropical central America. The 6 – 10 m tall trees are grown in ‘walks’ or plantations. The berries are picked in September when still green, then dried till they turn to a dark brown.

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

Food Pairing: Pork and veal pâtés and terrines, chicken, meat, grilled fish, pickled herring, aubergines, carrots, parsnip, squash, sweet potato, fruit pies or compôte (apple, pear), fruit salad.

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.