Black Gold in South India: pepper, trade, and a wonderful culinary experience of South India.

The history of India in many ways is the history of pepper, the vine’s twisting liana reaching into trade, colonialism, commerce, and vitally, food.

It was the desire for the seductive hit of Piper Nigrum, the explosive taste on the palate that added flavour without too much heat, that was believed to be a preservative, a flavour enhancer, a medicine and an aphrodisiac. The Kingdoms of Travancore and Malabar, modern-day Kerala, have been growing and trading this extraordinary spice since the first Arab traders sailed in on the monsoon.

Kerala is the land of single estate peppers, known as Tellicherry, that distinguishes them from Malabar pepper blends. Pepper varieties (and there are many, seventy-five different cultivars grow in Kerala plus others uncharted) include varieties that roll off the tongue - Paniyur, Velamundi, Thevan, Jeerakarimundi. The Karimunda variety is considered tiptop. Growers talk about the spiking value - how many spikes a vine creates, or yields. The Neelamundi (grown in Idukki), is a rare variety with an oily blue sheen. The name means "blue peppercorn" in Malayalam. I’d like to see this. I learnt many years ago from friends in Calicut that there are pepper varieties from vines grown in family farms that do not find their way into the commercial market, like the unlabelled wines of France that only those in the know, know. I love the fact that Kerala has peppers and bananas that vary from farm to farm. We’re back to my obsession with the terroir.

The history of pepper as a spice reaches back into time and explains, in many ways, how the rulers of Malabar and Travancore had cash in the coffers. The double monsoon and 1000-1500m altitude of humid valleys in the Western  ghats meant that pepper was (and is) finicky to grow, and that it needed specific conditions to produce the stone fruit that dries to become pepper. Kerala is one of the few places it can grow easily, and traders included ancient Arabs, Babylonians, Assyrians, and Egyptians to the Malabar Coast in the 3rd and 2nd millennia BCE. In more recent history, Portugal, Holland, France, and Britain came in search of the black gold. Ports flourished, sea trading routes expanded, the monsoon worked its magic. The economic value of this tiny spice has resourced this part of South India for millennia.

The age of the trade in pepper reaches back to the Romans who traded spice into Europe through Constantinople. This 700 year old Indo-Romano trading relationship ended as the gates to this route clashed shut in 1453, the Turks establishing dominance over the many trade routes beaten Europe and Asia. The search for a sea route around Africa for pepper is believed by historians to have ignited the European Age of Discovery, which in turn led to European mercantalism and colonialism.

The tiny peppercorn, so highly prized in Europe that people were sometimes paid in it, led to the Dutch East India Company and the British East India Company trading, settling, and to the British eventually colonising India for close to 350 years. This is an influential plant.

In Kochi, the Jewish Quarter is one of the few remaining vestiges of the significant Jewish population that once thrived in Kerala and had a recorded presence for a thousand years. Not far from here in Mattancherry is the spice market, where pepper futures are traded on a blackboard, and the godowns dry spices in the Keralan sun. Upcountry into the Western Ghats there are spice farms focused on pepper production, which is still a vital form of income for Kerala and India. The black gold still has currency.

Our trip to South India in late January 2025 explores the role of pepper, and its fellow spices including vanilla, nutmeg, turmeric and ginger, within the culinary and cultural context of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. We’ll visit the spice bazaars, learn how to temper and flavour, try traditional dishes, meet chefs passionate about their regionality. From Malabar Chicken Curry to pepper soup, this is a fabulous tour exploring the culinary palate of South India.

Give me a ping if you’d like more information. There are currently a few places left.