The Betty Black Blog

Six years ago when I decided to start my online magazine I had to come up with a name. My website was to be a little bit of everything which when put together would be uniquely Jamaican. After some thought the idea hit me. Allspice tastes like a blend of different spices but it’s not, it’s unique. My website was born! So let’s talk about the spice for which it is named: Allspice or Jamaica Pepper.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines allspice as: Jamaica Pepper, Eugenia Pimenta: Native Tree the berries of which are a popular spice which tastes like a combination of several other spices. Botanically, it is Pimenta dioica of the family Myrtaceae.

According to legend, when the Spanish arrived in Jamaica they thought that the dried berries were black pepper or pimienta and the name stuck. The native Tainos used allspice as medicine and for preserving meat. Meat, mostly wild boar, was preserved by flavouring with allspice and smoking over fires of allspice leaves and branches. The result was called boucan, which ultimately gave us the word buccaneer. As you may realise boucan was the earliest form of jerk pork!

An evergreen tree, rarely more than 15 ft (4.5m) tall, both leaves and berries can be used to achieve the distinctive flavour. However, it is the dried berries which are used both locally and for export as the leaves lose all flavour when dried. The berries are picked green and dried on special “barbeques” in the sun. The essential oil is also used in medicine including the treatment of indigestion and arthritis.

Pimento grown in Jamaica is in high demand for, just as with coffee, our soil and climate produces the best flavour. We produce 90% of the world’s pimento.

Allspice is popular worldwide and is used in an amazing range of dishes: cakes in England, Cincinnati Chili in the U.S.A., curries in India and sausages in Germany, meat dishes in Middle Eastern cuisine, pickles of various kinds in various countries and, of course, absolutely everything here!

When the trees bloom their small white powder-puff flowers the scent is amazing. In 1755, the botanist Patrick Browne wrote: “Nothing can be more delicious than the odour of these walks, when the trees are in bloom, as well as other times; the friction of the leaves and small branches even in a gentle breeze diffusing a most exhilarating scent.”

Read more about Jamaica at Jamaica-Allspice.com.