Clove

A clove is the unopened flower bud of the clove tree. This clove originates from Zanzibar, where the clove tree was introduced from Indonesia in the nineteenth century.

Cloves come from Syzygium aromaticum, a tree that originally grew only in the Moluccas, especially in the sultanates of the North Moluccas (Maluku Utara).

The clove tree is a 10-15 meter tall tree that bears cream-colored flowers, which turn red during flowering. However, this usually does not happen, because before the flowers open, the buds are picked to be dried into what we call cloves.

The tree bears flowers for the first time in the fourth to as many as the seventh year and can live to be eighty years old. The buds are picked manually by experienced pickers. The timing of the harvest is crucial; the buds must be perfectly round and already beginning to change color. As soon as a bud opens, it becomes unusable as a spice.

The Zanzibar archipelago was already the world's largest producer of cloves (around 1850). Clove cultivation there dates back to the early nineteenth century, when Zanzibar was under British rule. Cultivation takes place primarily on the northern island of Pemba. After a brief period of independence, Zanzibar has been part of Tanzania since 1964.

There are two annual harvest seasons: the harvest of average-sized cloves in the Mwaka season (July-November) and that of average-sized cloves in the Vuli season (December-March). Cloves are classified into three quality grades, CG1, CG2, and CG3, the latter primarily intended for the production of krecek, the Indonesian cigarette.

CG1 is the highest quality in terms of composition (minimal breakage, for example) and the most powerful flavor. CG2 buds still have a well-developed aroma, are slightly milder than CG1, and contain (at most) 5% headless cloves, 3% so-called khoker cloves - not sufficiently dried and therefore fermented - and 4% mother cloves (elongated fruits with a seed).

Scent and taste

The clove aroma comes from the pungent-tasting eugenol and combines excellently with spices and herbs that also contain eugenol, such as nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon, pepper, vanilla (eugenol is the raw material for the production of vanillin), basil, and star anise.

Usage

Cloves are suitable for sweet and savory dishes, in baked goods and desserts as well as in roasts and stews, in sour meat dishes and curries, and in sauerkraut, red cabbage, and mulled wine, of course. Many famous spice blends contain cloves.

Features:

• 100% dried flower buds of Sygyzium aromaticum
• hand-picked, quality CG2

Assortment

• available in glass (45 grams) and stand-up pouch (various weight classes)
  
• larger quantities than shown on request

Batch number Regular cloves - OB560382

• best before August 2028 (08-2028)