Pink Pepper: The Cashew-Family Berry That Isn’t Pepper

Pink peppercorns share black pepper’s shape and nothing else. They’re the dried berries of a South American tree in the cashew family, sweet, resinous and only mildly peppery, and most cooks reach for them for color and a juniper-like perfume, not heat. Their kinship with poison ivy even got them banned from import into the United States in 1982.

At a glance

Two trees, one name

Two species of Schinus supply the spice. Katzer names Schinus terebinthifolius (Kew now spells it terebinthifolia) as the Brazilian species and Schinus molle as the Peruvian one. The epithet molle comes from molli, the plant’s Quechua name.¹ Kew puts both in the Anacardiaceae, the family of cashew, sumac and poison ivy. Black pepper belongs to an unrelated family, the Piperaceae.

S. terebinthifolia is native from Brazil to northeastern Argentina, including Paraguay, and S. molle from Peru to northern Chile and southern Brazil to northeastern Argentina. Both have spread far beyond South America. S. terebinthifolia is introduced in Florida, Texas, California, Hawaii and other US states, across the Caribbean, in North Africa (Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya), Spain, Portugal, Australia and Réunion. S. molle is introduced in Greece, Italy, Spain, North Africa, the Middle East and Mexico, among other places, and it’s a common ornamental around the Mediterranean.

An invasive tree in Florida

The Brazilian peppertree arrived in Florida in the 1840s as an ornamental. It now infests more than 700,000 acres there. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection lists it as a Class I invasive under section 62C-52.011, which bans its sale and movement.² Katzer also notes it has turned out to be quite invasive in Florida.¹ Back in the early 1980s, when the US was importing the berries from France, University of Miami botanist Julia Morton told the Wall Street Journal that Floridians would pay people to take them out of the state.³

Flavor and aroma

The berries are sweet and aromatic, similar to juniper, with a weak flavor overall, and only slightly peppery. The name comes from their shape, not their taste. They’re resinous and faintly fruity, with a brittle shell that crushes easily.

The compounds

Katzer says the essential oil is mostly monoterpene hydrocarbons. The analysis he cites found about 21% Δ3-carene, 20% α-pinene and 13% α-phellandrene. He puts the sweetness of the dried berries down to their considerable sugar content.¹ For what gives true pepper its bite, see black pepper.

Pink pepper is not red pepper

The fully ripe fruit of the true pepper vine, Piper nigrum, is reddish to brown and pungent, and pink peppercorns shouldn’t be confused with it. Check the label for the botanical name: Schinus is pink pepper, Piper nigrum is true pepper. Our Kampot pepper page covers one red Piper nigrum product.

How it is used

Pink pepper is mostly ornamental. It turns up in European nouvelle cuisine, mainly in decorative mixtures, and some books suggest it for fish and certain vegetables. In everyday cooking, the berries go into multicolored peppercorn blends, onto pale dishes where their color shows, and into cream sauces, vinaigrettes and desserts. Crush them with the flat of a knife or in a mortar. Their flaky texture suits crushing better than a grinder.

For a blend of pink and black pepper, see peppercorn medley vs. black pepper. For the juniper comparison, see juniper berries.

Buying and quality

Katzer names Réunion as the main producer for the European market, followed by Turkey and other Mediterranean countries that harvest S. molle trees.¹ We didn’t find an international grade standard for pink pepper. Look for whole berries that are intact and evenly colored. The aroma comes from volatile terpenes, so your nose is the most practical freshness test.

Safety

The 1982 import ban

Pink pepper had a brief scare in the United States. Atlas Obscura reports that the FDA banned pink peppercorns from import in 1982, when many came from the French island of Réunion, and that the agency eventually dropped the ban. The worry was the plant’s relationship to poison ivy.³

What the sources say about irritation and allergy

• Irritation. Katzer says the berries sometimes get blamed for respiratory ailments or irritated mucous membranes, and that in the 1970s there was some concern about a possible health hazard. For the dried berries, only very weak irritating action, if any, was confirmed. He suggests any effect may come from urushiol-type allergens, the kind in poison ivy and some sumacs, and says the Réunion-grown spice appears to be free of them.¹
• The tree itself. The University of Florida says touching Brazilian peppertree can cause dermatitis in people with sensitive skin, and some people report breathing problems while it’s in bloom.² That’s the living plant, not the dried spice.
• Tree-nut allergy. Atlas Obscura found recent reports of allergic reactions limited to one patient with a tree-nut allergy.³ Pink pepper is in the cashew family, so if you have a cashew allergy, it’s worth asking an allergist before you eat it. That’s our advice, not a regulator’s.

Health claims

Pink pepper often gets credited with anthocyanins, gallic acid, very high fiber, and protection against cancer, diabetes and respiratory illness. We found no regulator summary, systematic review or nutrient database entry backing any of that up. Kew records that S. terebinthifolia has been used as a medicine, a poison and a food. That documents use, not effectiveness.⁴

Substitutes and comparisons

Nothing else has pink pepper’s mix of color and sweet, piney perfume. For aroma, a crushed juniper berry is the closest match. For color on the plate, no spice does the same thing. For either swap, start with less and taste. For true peppers, see black pepper, green peppercorns and white peppercorns. For other “peppers” that are separate plants, see Szechuan pepper, cubeb pepper and long pepper.