Coriander seed
The dried fruit of the coriander plant, citrus and faintly floral, and quite unlike the leaf of the same plant. It appears in spiced drinks across the Middle East and South Asia.
Identity
- Botanical name
- Coriandrum sativum
- Family
- Apiaceae
- Part used
- Seed
- Origin
- Probable Mediterranean origin; naturalised worldwide
- Drunk in
- India, Morocco, Egypt, Eastern Europe
Character
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.
Notes: citrus, warm spice, faint floral
History
Among the oldest documented cultivated spices, recorded in Egyptian tombs and Linear B tablets. Its leaf and seed have been used as separate ingredients for as long as records exist.
How it is drunk
Ground into masala blends across South Asia and used in Middle Eastern spiced drinks. In Europe it is a pickling and brewing spice more than a drinking one.
Production
Harvested as the seed heads turn brown and threshed. Whole seed keeps far better than ground, which loses its citrus note within weeks.
Preparation
Decoction · Infusion
Boiling and decoction
1–3 g/100 ml · 98–100 °C · 10 min
Related botanicals
- Nigella — 'Roman-coriander' completes the set. Five of nigella’s six English common names name a plant it is not related to.
Comparisons
- Cumin vs coriander seed — The two Apiaceae seeds that anchor most South Asian and Middle Eastern spicing, and the pair most often toasted together. One is earthy and musky, the other citrus and floral.
- Coriander seed vs caraway — Two Apiaceae seeds of similar size that sit next to each other on every spice shelf, and one of which is confused with cumin in half the languages of Europe.
- Coriander seed vs cumin — The two seeds toasted together in half the world’s cooking, and the pair most people can name but not taste apart in a finished dish.
Evidence for this page
The botanical name, family and distribution above are checked against an external authority. Coriandrum sativum L. — GRIN-Global Taxonomy record— retrieved and read, not countersigned by a named human. That source covers naming and distribution only. Everything else on this page — history, culture, production, flavour, preparation and buying advice — is TeaHQ’s own synthesis with no external source behind it.
Brewing parameters here are typical practice for the category rather than measurements of this plant, and each set says so.
This page makes no safety claim. It describes what Coriander seed is, where it comes from and how it is prepared — not what it does to a person. The absence of a safety note here is not a statement that the plant is safe. How TeaHQ handles this.