Black Pepper

spice · plant · food

A climbing vine plant. Black pepper grows on a flowering vine in the Piperaceae family. The plant produces small dark red berries about the size of a peppercorn (roughly 5 millimeters across).

Inside the berry. Each tiny berry is a type of fruit called a drupe, which means it has a hard stone inside. Inside that stone is a single pepper seed, which is what gets dried and becomes the peppercorn you sprinkle on food.

Three color varieties. Depending on when peppercorns are picked and how they're processed, they become black pepper, green pepper, or white pepper. Black pepper is the most common type we use in cooking.

Most popular spice ever. Black pepper and ground pepper from these peppercorns are used all around the world to season food. It's one of humanity's favorite seasonings for adding flavor and a little bit of heat to meals.