A story about taste

When Man discovered his ability to feel, there was no longer any question of ingesting anything! To satisfy his pleasure, he will have the idea to cook the meat and add all the spices he has on hand to enhance the taste. Thus, people would gradually learn to cultivate spices…

Already, as early as the first millennium, India cultivated cardamom, turmeric, and pepper. In China, star anise, cassia, cinnamon and ginger appear in medical books. Egypt was also truly the birthplace of spices, as evidenced by bas-reliefs and papyri. Fennel, fenugreek, cardamom, thyme… get in there.

In the 3rd millennium, the great pyramid builders ate garlic, onions and parsley. As part of embalming, anise, caraway, marjoram… were used in the manufacture of scented ointments intended for the mummified bodies of the deceased. Cleopatra probably wouldn’t have seduced Caesar without the scent of basil perfumed her lavish banquet…

Adopted by the Romans, then by the Greeks

Arabia quickly became a hub for camel caravans that traded Asian ivory, frankincense, African myrrh, precious stones, and cinnamon. Jealously preserved, the mystery of spices will not fade! But inquisitive minds want to adapt their tastes to these new tastes.

So, not hesitating to cross Asia as far as the Indus Valley, Alexander the Great opened up the Greek empire to an Eastern flavour, thus creating the famous spice route. Another route, by sea, would link India’s west coast to Aden (Yemen) in less than a year. In 812, the emperor instituted the cultivation of seventy aromatic plants and herbs in the imperial and monastic domains of Germania…

In contrast, the Romans were big pepper consumers. Apicius, the official cook of Emperor Tiberius, invented many spicy recipes, including the very famous clafoutis pepper… Marinade his meat with cumin and saffron and his dessert with poppy seed honey made him a famous gourmet.

Soon, however, the fall of Rome revived Muslim expansion and gave Arabs control of the routes between India and the West. With their astute science, they will little by little make the best of their spices and develop techniques of distillation and extraction of aromatic essences.

The start of a big trade

Around 1096, from Bruges to Lyon, the crusaders set off for the Holy Land. Founded in the East, the trade in precious stones and spices resumed with renewed vigor. The ports of Genoa and Venice exchanged wool, iron and other products for valuable seeds, herbs and flowers. Hundreds of ships sailing the sea will make Serenissima prosper.

Dates, figs, nutmeg, cardamom and cloves, hitherto reserved for the elite, were marketed by skilled traders who therefore targeted the European bourgeoisie.

They are great navigators who then take care of opening new routes. Christopher Columbus brought allspice and pepper from Jamaica; Cortès discovered vanilla and cocoa in Mexico and Vasco da Gama brought back ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, cloves from his travels to the West Indies.

The Portuguese opened counters in Ceylon and Goa, colonies to be usurped by the Dutch, who soon claimed a monopoly on spices, even destroying surplus production to avoid falling prices. The massacres and exploitation of the natives entered forever into the spice epic.

Alternation of French and English

Pierre Poivre (meaning if he was destined) adapted the nutmeg, cinnamon and clove crops in the West Indies and Reunion. At the same time, the British blockaded the Dutch counters and brought them into bankruptcy.

An agreement was signed, giving the Malay archipelago to the Dutch. The British crown holds India, Ceylon, Singapore and North Borneo.