Myrrh gum is sometimes referred to as myrrh resin. It is the dried sap from a particular type of tree. There are two types of myrrh, both of which come from trees in the Commiphora genus. The two varieties are heerabol — also called true myrrh — and bisabol. The …
Matcha powder is ground matcha tea. Matcha tea’s origins go back to the Tang Dynasty (7 AD to 10 AD). The original way of processing matcha tea for transport during the Tang era involved forming it into bricks. To prepare matcha tea, people roasted the bricks and ground them to …
Thai cardamom originated in southeast Asia and belongs to the same family as green cardamom, which is also known as Indian cardamom. Both Thai and Indian cardamom belong to the Zingiberaceae family to which ginger and turmeric also belong. Thai cardamom’s botanical name is Amomum krervanh, and its common names …
Pasilla powder consists entirely of ground pasilla chili pepper. Pasilla is the name given to the dried chilaca pepper. There is not much recorded about the chilaca’s history, nor about the pasilla pepper. What is known is that the chilaca is a very mild hot pepper that most likely came …
Cambodians have been growing pepper since the time of the Khmer Empire, which means that it has been produced there for more than 1,000 years. While many westerners may never have heard about Kampot, the quality of the region’s black pepper has made it famous among professional cooks and food-lovers …
Cinnamon and Thai basil both belong to the same family that includes regular basil (AKA sweet basil or Mediterranean basil) and mint. One factor that can make a comparison between these two tricky is that some people refer to cinnamon basil as Thai basil. Both cinnamon basil and Thai basil …
Moringa most likely originated in northern India but today it grows all over South Asia as well as parts of Africa and South America. It has been a staple medicine in Ayurveda for thousands of years. Practitioners of Ayurveda may have been using parts of the moringa tree for as …
Celtic sea salt is salt harvested on the southern Atlantic coast of France like another famous French salt, fleur de sel. The two salts are so similar that you could say that Celtic sea salt is a by-product of fleur de sel. Both are hand-harvested from salt pans in which …