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Seeds and spices

Seeds hold their aroma in oils that whole seed keeps sealed in. Crushing or lightly toasting immediately before brewing is the difference between a spice infusion and hot water that smells faintly of a cupboard. This group is also where the same English word most often covers several unrelated plants.

19 recordsUsually crushed before brewing; whole seed gives up little.

All 19

  • Ajwain
    Sharply thyme-like with a bitter, almost numbing edge. A pinch is a large quantity and it dominates anything it is put with.
  • Anise
    Sweeter and more concentrated than fennel, with a pronounced liquorice note and almost no bitterness. A little goes considerably further, and the usual error is dosing it like fennel and producing something that tastes of confectionery.
  • Black cardamom
    Heavily smoky with a cool camphor note underneath, and much more savoury than green cardamom. One pod flavours a large pot and two overwhelm it.
  • Black pepper
    Hot and woody with a citrus top note when freshly cracked. In chai it supplies a background heat rather than a flavour of its own.
  • Caraway
    Sharp and aniseed-adjacent with a distinct bready warmth, and more bitter than fennel. Anyone who dislikes rye bread will recognise why immediately.
  • Cardamom
    Intensely aromatic, cooling and slightly citrus. The seed carries the flavour and the pod does not, so pods are crushed rather than steeped whole.
  • Clove
    Powerfully aromatic and numbing, with a bitterness that arrives quickly. Two or three cloves flavour a pot; a spoonful ruins it.
  • Coriander seed
    Warm and citrus-like with a light sweetness and a soapy note that some people find immediately and others never notice at all. Gentler than most seed spices and easy to over-use because of it, particularly when lightly crushed first.
  • Cumin
    Warm, earthy and slightly bitter, with a distinct musky note that people either like immediately or never. Toasted seed is markedly nuttier and less raw.
  • Dill seed
    Sharper and more bitter than the leaf, with a caraway-like edge and a faint citrus lift. It does not taste much like fresh dill.
  • Fennel seed
    Sweet and clearly aniseed, with no heat and very little bitterness. Among the most immediately likeable botanicals here.
  • Fenugreek
    Sweet on the nose and firmly bitter in the mouth, with a mucilaginous body from the soaked seed. Almost always sweetened where it is drunk.
  • Grains of paradise
    Peppery heat with a cardamom-like aromatic lift and a clean citrus finish. Warmer and rounder than black pepper and far more aromatic.
  • Long pepper
    Hotter than black pepper with a slow-building heat and a sweet, almost molasses-like base. The delay before the heat arrives is what distinguishes it in the mouth.
  • Mahleb
    Almond and sour cherry together, with a bitter almond edge that grows if too much is used. Distinctive enough that anyone who grew up with the breads recognises it instantly.
  • Nigella
    Bitter, peppery and faintly oniony, with a herbal top note. Nothing about it resembles cumin, which is what it is most often called.
  • Nutmeg
    Warm, sweet and resinous with a woody bitterness underneath. Mace is lighter, more floral and more delicate than the nut, and the two are not interchangeable at the same quantity.
  • Sichuan pepper
    Citrus-peel aroma followed by a distinct buzzing numbness on the lips and tongue. The numbness is the point and it is unlike anything else in the spice cabinet.
  • Vanilla
    Rich and sweet-smelling with almost no sweetness of its own, and a woody, raisin-like depth that synthetic vanillin does not reproduce. Madagascan, Mexican and Tahitian pods differ noticeably.

Commonly confused within this group

  • Anise and Fennel seed — Anise is routinely adulterated with the cheaper fennel, which looks similar and tastes milder.
  • Nigella and Cumin — Nigella is sold as black cumin and is a buttercup relative rather than an Apiaceae. Nothing about the two tastes alike.
  • Caraway and Cumin — Kammun, kümmel and comino sound related across languages and name different plants. The seeds look similar and the flavours are not close.
  • Black cardamom and Cardamom — Different genera despite the shared name. Black cardamom is fire-dried and smoky and is wrong in almost every sweet preparation green cardamom belongs in.
  • Long pepper and Black pepper — The Latin piper covered both and classical sources valued this one more highly. Its heat arrives late and builds, which is what distinguishes it in the mouth.
  • Sichuan pepper and Black pepper — Not a pepper and not related to one. It produces a tingling numbness rather than heat, which is a mechanical sensation rather than a taste.

Guides covering this group

Other groups

Grouping is by the plant part used, which is a fact about the material rather than a judgement about flavour. A plant appears in one group only, so cinnamon is a bark and not a spice here even though every kitchen in the world files it the other way.