Collection: Chile

One of the most interesting products from Chile is merkén or merquen. A unique product with a magnificent story, which begins in the sixteenth century with the confrontations between the Reche, a people who lived between the Aconcagua River and the Chiloé in what is now called Chile and the Spanish conquerors.. Reche was the collective name (meaning 'people') for three peoples, the Pikunche, the Huilliche and what were called the 'central' Reche, later the Mapuche. This latter group fought many violent conflicts with the Spaniards and successfully.

Eventually, a peace agreement called the Treaty of Quilin was reached in 1641. In it, the Mapuche were recognized as a separate and autonomous people. The Mapuche were thus the only indigenous group under Spanish control to achieve full independence, though not in isolation. They traded with the Spaniards and shared their agricultural practices, from which a 'fusion chili powder' emerged, merkén, a mixture of the local goat horn chili and two spices introduced by the Spaniards: cumin and coriander.

We are proud to offer this authentic chili powder from the Mapuche.

Furthermore, we supply pepe canelo, the fruit of a plant very important to the Mapuche. plant, the Drymis winteri, which in their language, the Mapudungun, foyer is called. This pepe canelo is related to the Tasmanian pepper, a bushpepper from Down Under.