Ingredients · Spice

Green Peppercorns

Piper nigrum · Piperaceae (pepper family)

Green Peppercorns
The same berry as black pepper, picked unripe and preserved before it can oxidise and darken — which is why it stays green. Fresher and brighter than black pepper, with a herbal, almost grassy note and a milder heat. Two products carry them, both peppercorn blends, where the green corns are there for that lighter note and for the look. Their classic dish is French: steak au poivre vert.

What it’s like, and how to use it

The partBerry
KindSpice
CaffeineCaffeine-free
Where it is fromIndia (native range)
TasteBright, fresh and herbal with a mild heat — the green, unoxidised version of black pepper

How to use it

In a peppercorn blend, where they lighten a grind. Crushed into a cream sauce for steak — the French au poivre vert. In pâté and terrines. In a brine. Their brightness fades faster than black pepper's, so use them sooner.

With food

Steak and cream. Duck. Pork. Mustard. Brandy. Chicken liver. Fish.

With spices

Black, white and pink peppercorns in a blend. Mustard. Juniper. Bay. Thyme.

With tea

Not a tea ingredient.

Its story

Where it comes from

Piper nigrum is native to South Asia. Green peppercorns are produced wherever black pepper is — Vietnam leads world production at roughly 30 per cent, then Brazil, Indonesia and India. Our lot names no origin.

What happened

Black, white and green are one berry and three decisions. Black is picked unripe and dried in the sun until the skin blackens. White is picked ripe and soaked about a week until the flesh loosens, then rubbed clean. Green is picked unripe like black, but stopped before it can darken — dried fast, freeze-dried, or packed in brine. Everything that is true of pepper's history is true of these: the Malabar Coast, the Roman ships on the monsoon, three thousand pounds of pepper in the ransom that lifted the siege of Rome in 408. Green is simply the youngest version of the same fruit.

On the shelf with it

Sold on its own, and in these blends.

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