Cubeb
Piper cubeba · Spice
Top 10 pairings
Cubeb (Piper cubeba), also called tailed pepper or Java pepper, is the dried, nearly ripe berry of a perennial climbing vine in the pepper family, native to Indonesia. Each wrinkled, grey-brown berry carries a slender stalk — the "tail" — and tastes of pungent black pepper crossed with the piney, allspice-like warmth of clove and nutmeg.
Picking a good onedrag
Just milled, loud and oilyFaded, dusty, smells of nothing
Whole in the jarEveryday bestTailed whole berries hold their oil a year or more. Keep them sealed and dark, and dry-toast before grinding to round off the camphor edge.
Crush and smellPeppery and warm, the cool resinous top note gone quiet
Whole, and tailedWhole berries, tails mostly intact, a few snapped loose in the bag
Look at the berriesColour a little uneven, a few broken shells, some fines below
Press oneFirm, with a few berries crushing soft rather than snapping