Our pseudo peppers

Pseudo peppers are often referred to as 'false' peppers in other languages. For example, in French the term 'faux poivre' is used in English 'false pepper'. In common parlance, the term pepper is used for both plants of the genus Piper of the Piperaceae family and plants of the genus Capsicum of the Solanaceae family, better known as chili peppers. By pseudo-peppers we mean all spices from other plant genera that are used in the same way as these two peppers for their pungency.

Such pseudo-peppers are the standard in various countries, such as in Japan, where black pepper and chili pepper lose out to Szechuan pepper, usually sansho. In Europe, some of the pseudo-peppers traditionally used there have been completely forgotten, such as paradise grain and selim. In Africa, where both of these come from, the Asian black pepper and long pepper supplant the native peppers, even the African long pepper, a true pepper.

The differences between the botanically different peppers concern both the degree of sharpness and the taste. As for the pungency, only plants from the Piperaceae family contain the pungent substance piperine. Pseudo peppers appeal to our acuity receptors in very diverse ways. Such as with sanshool, the pungent substance in the peppers of the Zanthoxylum genus (the Szechuan peppers), which numbs the tongue.

We take you on a world trip with our pseudo peppers that is well worth the effort.