Penzey's Tellicherry Pepper "Extra Bold"

[Jenise]

Years ago I wasn't all that much a fan of black pepper and I thought the routine chef instruction to salt & pepper every thing was overkill. It was on par with my sister's habit of putting ketchup on everything. I mean--yeah, black pepper was great on a baked potato and an ear of corn, but every salad, every raw chicken breast, every steak? No. Not by a loooooong shot.

Problem is, I started out with canned ground pepper, so no wonder I wasn't impressed. There was/is nothing interesting about canned pepper--it's lost most of its flavor before it leaves the factory. Eventually I graduated to pepper mills (still using the canned stuff in cooking) and liked those multi-colored "gourmet" blends because they were pretty, but once I tried a pure malabar black, I knew I was in finer territory and that became my new standard. And since the pepper actually had real flavor character, my use of pepper increased. But even then, I probably only refilled my pepper mill about once every three months.

Then I discovered tellicherry pepper, a pepper than instantly surpassed all others, and before long I discovered the sublime superfreshness of Penzey's tellicherry pepper, and a revolution began in my kitchen. Suddenly I loved pepper. One mill wasn't enough, I had to buy a second. Nowadays both require refilling weekly: I use about a pound and a half a year. Mind you, I still don't pepper every raw chicken breast nor agree that every salad is better with a layer of pepper on top, but I do season many, many things with pepper and some I load with so much pepper they're quite picante.

So I didn't think I could be any more besotted, but last time I placed a Penzey's order I mistakenly chose the Extra Bold, a product about which I wasn't even curious. After all, straight tellicherry was perfect, no?

Well, yes, but...the Extra Bold's even more perfect. It really is extra bold--bigger corns, bigger flavor, more heat. I could go back to regular, but I wouldn't want to.

So that's the purpose of this post: I simply want to reccomend this product. If you like tellicherry pepper and you haven't tried Penzey's extra bold, get thee to their website right now. It costs a little more, but it's worth it.

Mmm...tellicherry.... yum.

I love black pepper. So did my father. Once, in a restaurant, the waitress asked him if the top fell off the pepper shaker.

[Jenise]

Once, in a European style restaurant, a discreet server tired of trying to get my date's and my attention, as we were oblivious to the fact that he had served our salads and was offering cracked black pepper from a small silver bowl. Finally he leaned over and whispered, "Sir, pleeze, ze pepper. Eet weel geeve you strength."

Wonderful anecdote ! I hope it worked.

I love the extra bold but needed to buy a different pepper grinder. You need a variable opening that can accommodate the larger sized corns. Alternative was to use a large mortar and pestle. I fell in love wth the aroma as well as the taste.

Thanks, I just placed my order, for the regular Telicherry and the Extra Bold, so I can compare them.
Didn't spring for the expedited shipping though. So I'll have to wait...

Then I discovered tellicherry pepper, a pepper than instantly surpassed all others, and before long I discovered the sublime superfreshness of Penzey's tellicherry pepper.

Didn't know about the Extra Bold, sounds interesting.

Telicherry is much more available now in the US than formerly -- the Costco warehouse stores (vendors of some surprisingly excellent artisanal cooking ingredients and wines) sell bottle-shaped containers with half a liter or so of corns.

We had pepper grinders when I was young (I found they worked well on dried corn kernels too, but like a typical kid I fogot to put the pepper back, leading to a surprise when someone tried to season their scrambled eggs the next morning -- not the worst such case, I assure you). But I first tried Telicherry as a child, around 1967, bought by my folks at our little neighborhood independent coffee/tea/spice dealer.* Haven't stopped using it.


*Peet's (later sold and turned into a chain).

Thanks for the suggestion, Jenise. Just in time -- I'm ordering our annual Penzey's care package.

I'll add to last posting (while still in mind) that my younger brother and I both liked to experiment in the kitchen and discovered, around age 4-6, that if we got up well before dawn, the kitchen was ours, and also free of annoying [parental] contraints, bane of all visionaries. We were pretty good about cleaning up and putting things back. But I learned that my brother liked to do this even more than I did because he sometimes did it by himself (the lone researcher), leading once to my father hesitating noticeably while cooking, after very prudently tasting a jar labeled sugar, before using it. What is it, I asked: salt? Seems to be both, he replied. (Lesson: Always check your ingredients.) My brother and I continue to experiment with practical things including cooking.

And also that wine geeks here might be surprised to learn which local gastronome lawyer worked on the Peet's sale a couple decades ago. (Rahsaan recently mentioned tasting wine with him.) I'll leave it at that!

Cheers

I've been using Penzey's Four Pepper Blend for a few years now and two years ago tried the Tellicherry. I will have to order the extra bold, as well.
Amazing how great products can change our way of thinking about how to use them

Mmm...tellicherry.... yum.

I love black pepper. So did my father. Once, in a restaurant, the waitress asked him if the top fell off the pepper shaker.

LOL Larry!

This is my regular pepper these days, though I also use another peppercorn for variation.

[Robin Garr]

Dang! I just love Penzey's Tellicherry, but I just restocked with a whole pound of the regular last month.

Guess I'll just have to come up with an order to get some Extra Bold now.

It's times like these that I am glad to have a Penzey's retail store a couple of miles away.

I checked Penzey's website and went to the Tellicherry section ....no extra bold. It was only listed under black Indian Peppercorns. Did I miss something?

[Jenise]

I checked Penzey's website and went to the Tellicherry section ....no extra bold. It was only listed under black Indian Peppercorns. Did I miss something?

Karen, hmmm...can't quite answer that, as the Extra Bolds I got, I got by mistake. I presumed that I simply ticked the wrong box, you know, one up or one down from what I meant to order. The receipt included with the shipment definitely specified the extra bold--it wasn't like the warehouse putting the wrong thing in my box as I first presumed. I never went back to the website to investigate any further. I'll have to take a look.