Once dried, the spice is called black peppercorn. On some estates, the berries are separated from the stem by hand and then sun-dried without the boiling process. Once the peppercorns are dried, pe

Black and white peppercorns
Black pepper[edit]
Black pepper is produced from the still-green unripe drupes of the pepper plant. The drupes are cooked briefly in hot water, both to clean them and to prepare them for drying. The heat ruptures cell walls in the pepper, speeding the work of browning enzymes during drying. The drupes are dried in the sun or by machine for several days, during which the pepper around the seed shrinks and darkens into a thin, wrinkled black layer. Once dried, the spice is called black peppercorn. On some estates, the berries are separated from the stem by hand and then sun-dried without the boiling process.
Once the peppercorns are dried, pepper spirit & oil can be extracted from the berries by crushing them. Pepper spirit is used in many medicinal and beauty products. Pepper oil is also used as an ayurvedic massage oil and used in certain beauty and herbal treatments.

Black Pepper (Piper nigrum) essential oil in a clear glass vial



Ground black pepper and a plastic pepper shaker



Roughly cracked black peppercorns, also known as mignonette or poivre mignonette



The 6 variants of Pepper
White pepper[edit]
"White pepper" redirects here. For the Ween album, see White Pepper.


White pepper grains