When black pepper is hot

[Jenise]

These days I love black pepper and use it fairly liberally. I go through half a pound of Penzey's Tellicherry every six months.

But it wasn't always like that for me. For years about the only way I used it was on corn on the cob. And I liked so much pepper, it was hot. It bit back. In my years of buying Tellicherry from Penzey's, however, the heat went away. I've wondered every now and then if I built up a tolerance, or if the heat in fact wasn't there. Recently, I ran out of pepper and coincidentally saw Tellicherry in containers at Costco, so I bought some.

Last week I made a bean soup and Bob asked what kind of chiles I had put in it. None. Then a few days ago I put a nose dose of pepper in something else, and it had the hot kick, too. So it's the Costco tellicherry pepper that's hot.

So I called Penzey's today and asked if I could talk to a pepper buyer about what made black pepper hot, telling my story above to illustrate my desire to know. I asked if it was the growing climate. Is pepper from X hotter than pepper from India, for instance, or does a hotter vintage year produce sweeter or hotter peppercorns? The first answer was, "Maybe you're putting more in than you used to." To that I had to hold back something snide along the lines of, "If that were the case, would I have called you?", and just asked what their second choice was. It's probably old, said my new phone pal, "Pepper gets hotter as it ages."

Not sure if I buy that or not, especially since I didn't get an authoritative first answer. I did a little internet searching and didn't come up with anything that addresses 'heat' beyond variety. What I want to know comes WITHIN varietal borders..

Anyone else have a clue?

It's probably old, said my new phone pal, "Pepper gets hotter as it ages."

I don't believe that at all.

Pepper gets hotter if you leave it on the vine longer -- the more mature the berry, the more volatile oils are in it.

But sitting in a jar on a shelf at Costco? Nope, can't be true.

I have done some 'net searching now, too. Most conversations about Costco Tellicherry are of the "ooh, look!" nature so not helpful. I found one disdainful spice buyer who said they are selling it cheaper than he gets it through channels so he suspects it isn't really Tellicherry or it's a low grade.

You could try sending the question to Lior Lev Sercarz at La Boite a Epice http://laboiteny.com/contact/ -- he is the go-to spice guy for Boulud, Ripert, etc.

You could try sending the question to Lior Lev Sercarz at La Boite a Epice http://laboiteny.com/contact/ -- he is the go-to spice guy for Boulud, Ripert, etc.

Ooh, ooh! I recently sent a pile of money to Lior so that I could cook EVERYTHING in the Zahav cookbook. Very interesting stuff.

[Jenise]

Jeff, I emailed Lior yesterday--thanks for the link. I await a reply.

[Jenise]

I have a reply from Christian at the NY City spice purveyor Jeff provided a link for. Here it is:

First off thanks for your patience! I ran this by Lior and did some research. By hot do you mean very peppery? Or hot like a chile is?

If its the latter, the pepper could have come into contact with chiles.

If it's the former, then all the conditions you mentioned apply to a degree:
- Climate condition and growing area are responsible for variation (think how peppers grown in hot climates tend to have more capsaicin).

- And length of time since picking can have some effect, the principal compound responsible for the heat is piperine, which is light sensitive and can degrade to isochavicine, which is relatively flavorless, though this happens very slowly until the pepper is ground.

- Additionally, the cultivar makes a big difference, each variety has varying levels of piperine , as well as volatile oils that are responsible for the woodsy, citrus, etc. flavors. Tellicherry is a region, but not all the pepper vines grown there are the same.

Hope this helps!

The most revealing detail is probably the last--that Tellicherry is a region of different pepper vines. So god knows what is in the jar I bought from Costco. (If my memory is accurate re something so small, I'd bet that my Costco pepper is actually a slightly smaller diameter than the Tellicherry I've purchased from Penzey's.)

Btw, I'm surprised to see them called vines. I grew up around a lot of natural, wild-growing pepper--always trees, definitely trees. And large ones, too.

Product variation, to the rescue.

http://chickensintheroad.com/farm-bell- ... -of-spice/

From the URL above

True pepper (piper nigrum) grows on perennial evergreen vines which may reach a height of thirty-five feet. Farmers coax new plants from cuttings. Plants begin producing berries in two to five years and may live as long as forty years. In southern India, tea and pepper plants are often grown together; the pepper vines grow on supports and loom above delicate tea plants.

[Jenise]

Frank, that picture helps a lot. Definitely nothing like the pepper trees I grew up around in California!

Jenise perhaps you grew up with what I know as the peppercorn tree, certainly can grow very large.
These are the source of pink peppercorns but are not the true pepper.

[Jenise]

I think I have a picture somewhere. They may not produce the type of pepper considered table peppers, but pepper they are. Wouldnt' be surprised if they're the same--we got all our Eucalyptus from you guys, maybe the pepper too!

I thought I could shed some light on the "pepper trees" of California. The most common species, in California called "California pepper tree", is Schinus molle. It does very well in arid parts of California but is actually native to the desert-y parts of Peru. They're tough trees that can get by with very little in the way of rainfall, so it wouldn't surprise me if they do well in Australia, too. As Barb says, they are the source of "pink peppercorns". They have nothing to do with true pepper but are in the same family as cashews.

There's also a similar species from Brazil that's also planted in California, going by "Brazilian pepper tree" there.

[Jenise]

Cashews?????

Now that's WEIRD. But thanks for the information. They're lovely, willow-y trees, and warmly remind me of my childhood.