Looking at your pepper mill sitting on the kitchen table, it’s easy to forget black pepper’s contribution to food preparation around the world, as well as the role it has played in history. Yet don’t let the ubiquitous nature of this spice fool you. This seemingly humble berry used to be so valuable that countries felt the need to find faster, safer routes to India in order to improve their access to this and other spices, which ultimately led to the European “discovery” and colonization of many different parts of the world.

Pepper has been used as a spice in India since pre-historic times and has been documented as being used throughout the Roman Empire for food preparation. Now it is one of the most used spices in the world, found in all different types of cuisine as a way to bring a spicy heat to food. Originally from India, specifically from what is now the southwestern state of Kerala, black pepper now also comes from Vietnam, Indonesia and Brazil.

Black pepper is the result of fermenting and drying the still immature, and therefore green, berries of the Piper nigrum vine. This is the same vine that produces white and red peppercorns, and so it is the preparation process the producing the dark color of black peppercorns.

As with other spices, pepper loses its aroma and taste once ground into a powder, and so it is best to keep it in the peppercorn form as long as possible and grind it when needed to cook or flavor food. When not using your peppercorns, it is best to keep them in an airtight container so as to preserve the spiciness of the pepper. So next time a recipe calls for a quick dash of salt and pepper, take a second to think about how a small little pod has managed to travel around the world in order to season your next meal to perfection.