Cardamom Pods

Cardamom Pods

Cardamom is the third most expensive spice in the world, after saffron and vanilla, and the reason is in the harvest. The pods ripen unevenly across eight or nine months of flowering and each one has to be picked by hand at about three-quarters ripe. If picked too early and the flavour hasn't developed, if too late and the pod splits and loses its seeds.

What you get is an aroma nothing else matches: intensely sweet and resinous, with eucalyptus brightness over a warm, almost camphorous base. Gently crush a pod between your fingers and it opens into something bright and green, then softens into a lingering, almost balsamic warmth.

Whole pods keep that aroma for years where ground cardamom loses it within weeks, the volatile oils sit protected inside the shell until you break it. Crush the pods lightly before brewing or cooking and use the whole thing, husk included, for infusions.

The sweetly aromatic, delicious and pungent taste of cardamom has found its way into many different culinary traditions. In its native India, cardamom forms an important component of curries, curry powders, vegetable and meat dishes, as well as desserts. In Ayurveda, it is considered balancing for all constitutions.

Cardamom is also essential to the cuisines of the Middle East and Scandinavia. The seeds are traditionally used to flavor Arabian coffee and black Turkish tea. Scandinavians use it in desserts, mulled wines, meat dishes and sausages. In Europe and America, cardamom is well known as an essential ingredient of gingerbread and sweet pastries. Cooks all over the world combine cardamom with cloves and cinnamon. Cardamom lends its distinctive flavor to chai teas, which makes them aromatic, stimulating and refreshing.

Ingredients

Organic Cardamom pods (Elettaria cardamomum)

Specifications