Spices · Agriculture · 8 min read

Allspice: Sarvasugandhi, the Spice of All Fragrances

One berry that tastes of clove, cinnamon and nutmeg together. Allspice came from the Caribbean but now grows in Kerala's homesteads and Idukki's spice gardens. Its history, cultivation, processing, trade, nutrition and uses.

By GK Global, Adimali, Munnar · Trails & Tales by GK

Crush a dried allspice berry and you smell cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg all at once. That is how it got its English name, and its Malayalam one too: sarvasugandhi, "all fragrance". Allspice comes from the Caribbean, but its tall, smooth-barked trees have made themselves at home in Kerala's spice gardens and homesteads, including those of Idukki, where a single tree in the yard can perfume the whole house with its leaves.

History

The Maya used allspice to embalm the dead, and the peoples of the Caribbean used it to flavour and preserve meat; the word "barbecue" and the Jamaican tradition of jerk cooking over allspice wood both come from this world. Spanish explorers took the berries for pepper and called them pimienta, the origin of the name pimento. By the 17th century allspice was being shipped to Europe from Jamaica, and the tree spread through the tropics with the colonial spice trade, reaching India in the 19th century.

Growing allspice

• Climate: a warm, humid climate with good rainfall, from sea level up to about 1,000 m.
• Male and female trees: trees are functionally male or female, and only female trees bear many berries, so growers raise grafted or layered plants from good female trees, with a few males for pollination.
• Growth: the tree grows 6 to 15 m tall, with leathery, aromatic leaves and smooth, peeling grey bark. It begins bearing in 5 to 7 years.
• Harvest: the berries are picked when fully grown but still green, before they ripen and turn purple, because ripe berries lose much of their aroma. Whole fruiting twigs are broken off and the berries stripped by hand.

Processing and grading

The green berries are sun-dried for about a week, or dried in driers, until they turn reddish-brown and the seeds rattle inside. Some growers "sweat" them in heaps for a few days first to develop the colour. Dried allspice is cleaned and graded by size, colour, soundness and freedom from stalks and foreign matter. The leaves and berries are also distilled for pimento leaf oil and berry oil, rich in eugenol.

Trade

World trade in allspice is small and dominated by Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and Jamaica, whose "Jamaica pimento" is regarded as the finest. In India, allspice is a minor crop sold mainly in local markets, in spice gardens and through specialist spice dealers, and its leaves are often used fresh.

Nutrition

Approximate values; source: USDA FoodData Central (ground allspice). Spices are eaten in small amounts, so a typical serving supplies only a small share of these nutrients.

Its clove-like aroma comes from eugenol, the main component of its essential oil, along with methyl eugenol and caryophyllene.

Traditional and medicinal uses

Allspice is not part of classical Ayurveda, which grew up long before it arrived in India, but it has a long place in Caribbean and Central American folk medicine, where it is used for indigestion, gas, colds and muscle aches, and the warm oil is rubbed on sore joints. In Kerala households, the leaves are used in tea and in steam baths for colds.

These are traditional uses. Spices are safe in normal food amounts; anyone thinking of using them as medicine, especially in pregnancy, while taking other medicines or for a child, should ask a qualified doctor.

Uses

• Kitchen: Jamaican jerk seasoning, Caribbean and Middle Eastern dishes, pickles, sausages, Christmas puddings and cakes; in Kerala, the leaves flavour biryani, meat dishes and tea, much like bay leaves.
• Food industry: ground allspice and its oils in sausages, ketchup, sauces and baked goods.
• Perfumery: pimento oils in men's fragrances and soaps.
• Home: potpourri and natural air fresheners.