Steenbergs Tasmanian Mountain Pepper

Steenbergs Tasmanian Mountain Pepper is roughly 10 times hotter than normal black pepper – you have been warned! Tasmanian Mountain Pepper is Hot: starts sweet, fruity that becomes intense, biting, numbing with a big heat.

Mountain Pepper is a berry and not from the pepper family. Tasmanian pepper (Tasmania lanceolata) is often called ‘Mountain Pepper’ and comes from the uplands of Tasmania and South East Australia. Strangely, the indigenous Aboriginal peoples are thought not to have used these for spicing foods, although this may simply be colonial wishful thinking. The berries are dark bluey-black in colour and have a 5 – 8mm diameter knobbly round shape, with a ridge around the centre.

Axel’s Tasting Notes: Tasmanian Mountain Pepper – Aroma: Sweet grass and pine woods, oily, turpentine, warming and hints of clementine. Flavour: Intensely hot versus black pepper – pungent bite and numbing sensation like Sichuan pepper that persists; no pepper pungency. Leaves: herbaceous woody taste, with hints of lemon and a tingling mouthfeel.

Food pairing: Slow-cooked casseroles of game, beef and lamb, marinades for red meat, pulses, carrots, squash. Best cooked – don’t add as pepper to cooked food. Leaves: salad dressing, omelettes.