Description

The pepper plant is a vigorous vine that climbs supports using tendrils. The oval leaves are bright green with pronounced veins. It has small green flowers grouped in long clusters, which give way to fleshy fruits of varying colors, depending on maturity. Thus, green pepper is the result of a harvest when the peppercorns are immature, white pepper is the mature peppercorn with the pericarp removed and black pepper is the full, mature peppercorn, picked when tinged with red. Several days of sun-drying transforms these fleshy berries into small, shriveled, black kernels with a strong, spicy aroma. The fragrance of black pepper essential oil is fresh and spicy with a delicately woody note. The Madagascar origins can be detected in the characteristic resinous facet.