Allspice is a dried fruit of Pimenta diocia plant, a native tree found in Central and Latin America. The fruit of this plant is picked when green and unripe, and traditionally dried in the sun. Once dried they look like large peppercorns.
The allspice tree is native to the Greater Antilles (Jamaica, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico and Cuba), southern Mexico and Central America. While the tree is now cultivated in many tropical areas of the world, it is apparently the only spice processed commercially solely in the New World, particularly Mexico, Honduras, Jamaica, Trinidad and Cuba. Jamaica was the leading exporter of allspice, at least until the 1990s, but there is now some indication that Mexico has superseded it, and Honduras and Guatemala are becoming major exporters.
This beautiful tree reaches 30-40 ft. high and features aromatic, leathery, glossy, oblong 4-8 in. leaves. The bark, whitish-gray in color, peels away in thin sheets. The tree produces clusters of white flowers which are followed by berry-shaped fruits that mature purple-black. However, in the commercial production of allspice, the fruit is picked green and dried in the sun. The major volatile oil responsible for this species’ fame is eugenol.
“Allspice has a flavor and aroma that resemble a combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, and perhaps giving rise to the name ‘allspice’”
Allspice, also commonly known as Jamaican pepper or pimento, is one of the extensively used spices in the Mexican as well as other Central American cuisines. Allspice is a small, globose, berries 6 -10 mm diameter, with a thick, woody, brittle pericarp and are green while young turning to dark purple when ripe. There is a thin layer of soft, sweet aromatic pulp around the seeds that is very delicious and reminiscent of cloves. The skin is much wrinkled. They are picked when green and unripe and are traditionally dried in the sun. When, ending up as the somewhat shrunken, hard berries. Allspice berry has strong, spicy and pungent smell that closely resembles a mixture of black-pepper, nutmeg, cloves, and cinnamon and pungent and slightly peppery taste. Each berry has two hard, dark-brown, reniform seeds. Seeds are about the size of a peppercorn. Whole fruits have a longer shelf life than the powdered product and produce a more aromatic product when recently ground before use.
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