Some Interesting Facts about Indian Spices that You Need to Know

Indian spices are accredited and recognized worldwide for their rich taste, flavour, and health and wellness benefits. Indian recipes and cuisine are known for delicate to the munificent use of a variety of Indian spices and each dish tastes different as the spices differ widely. But there are some very interesting facts about Indian spices, which you should to know.

India is acknowledged to be the biggest producer, consumer, and exporter of spices in the world. In the year 2018-19, around 1.10 million tons of Indian spices and spice products worth Rs. 19,505.81 Crore (US$ 2.80 Billion) were exported from the country. It is also the leading export of landmark products such as spice flavoured oils, bathing bars, fragrances, and chocolates.

Saffron is not only the costliest spices of India but also around the world. Harvested in Kashmir Valley, the original saffron is more costly than gold and was brought to India by the ancient Romans, Greeks, and Arabic traders. The purity of saffron is calculated by its colour, and the darkened the colour of the fibres, the purer and more productive is the variety.

Amid the Indian spices, cardamom is also one of the expensive spices. It is costly as the spice is hand-harvested, and its farming requires a lot of physical labour. Originally grown in the Malabar Coast, presently Cardamom is now cropped in other parts of Kerala, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu. There are two variants of cardamom; that is black and green. The green variant has a gentle eucalyptus taste while the black one is spicy and gives out a smoky taste.

With immense medicinal value, Black Pepper is generally used in Middle-Eastern and North African countries. It is used in all kinds of worldwide cuisine. These are all interesting yet known facts about peppercorns but do you know that Black Peppers were the most costly of all spices and were counted like coins separately? In past days, black pepper was recognized as Black Gold.

Known as one of the common spices, mustard seeds are used in every Indian home. The mustard paste is used in a variety of East Indian recipes. And the fact that fascinates us mustard seeds is a source of Vitamin B and used to cure arthritic pain, rheumatoid and muscle ache.

Most famous spice, Turmeric is used to prevent Alzheimer’s disease, and asafoetida is known to be a curative item to heal menstrual cramps and pain. Nutmeg or Jaiphal is an inspiring Indian spice, which has a Mughal origin. This spice has a strong scent, and it is the seed of the Myristica fragrans tree/ not only the seed, but the tree also provides nutmeg essential oil and nutmeg butter.