For us who live in the 21st century, spices are just a way for us to flavor our food. But before the invention of refrigerators, their antibacterial powers made them extremely valuable preservatives, adding a powerful taste to pork and fish when they weren’t at their freshest. In Asia, the great taste of spices makes them even more popular, along with their valuable medical properties.

As soon as Europe heard about the great properties of spices, it set out to find them, embarking on a long and risky journey. Hearing of this, those who "ran" the trade (skilful Arab sailors) pushed up the prices. During the Renaissance, however, the Portuguese finally mastered navigation and broke their monopoly in Ceylon. There they bought cinnamon, cardamom and pepper at low prices and in the 17th century, the Dutch took over, improving the crops and introducing other varieties. The British came to the country in the 19th century, and today, Sri Lankan spices are part of a luxury market and considered to be very high quality.

Pepper, the king of all spices

Today, if you head to the mountain roads around Kandy, you will necessarily come across a few spice gardens. Their owners attend to them meticulously, as everything grown there is used in the family kitchen. They usually sell what they don’t use at the market, or carefully wrap it in a package for tourists who stop to peruse their produce. But in the city, and in the markets, there are of course many specialized shops that offer a huge choice of spices.

The king of the island's spices is definitely pepper, which grows on vines, and almost looks like small currants. Coming from western India, it is the most widely consumed condiment in the world, which explains why there are so many varieties of it, with some (such as timur) being nothing like actual pepper. In Sri Lanka, you will mostly find Piper Nigrum growing and being picked in wild forests. While it is called "black pepper", its color varies depending on its maturity. But in fact black, green and white pepper all belong to the same species. They should be used in small quantities as they are powerful, and should be stored as peppercorns which can then be grounded at the last minute to enjoy all its fruity taste and sharpness.

Other spices

Like pepper, vanilla grows on the vine, and you should buy pods when they are soft and shiny and store them in a glass tube with a tight lid. Another small pod is cardamom (enasal in Sinhalese) which contains sweet seeds, and can be found in milk tea and pastries, just like cinnamon.

Ceylon cinnamon, or true cinnamon, is the most famous and the best in the world. You will immediately recognise it by its light brown color - it is the inner bark of the shrub. It can be found and used in sticks or in powder for cooking, but also in perfumery. In the past, it used to be sprinkled on funeral pyres.

On the outskirts of Colombo is Kurundu Vaththa, the "Cinnamon Garden". It is now the residence of the Prime Minister, but in Dutch times it was the largest cinnamon plantation on the island. The chaliyas, which were a special caste, were responsible for peeling the trees and shipping them to Amsterdam. Nowadays, the large-scale cane plantations are located around Matale, in the center of the country, where the national spice garden is located.

Cloves are the buds of flowers taken from the Syzygium Aromaticum tree. Surprisingly, this condiment is also used in dentistry to soothe toothaches. Nutmeg is the kernel of the fruit of the nutmeg tree (Myristica Fragrans) and is native to the Moluccas.

Chilli, the base ingredient of curry

Although pimenta means "pepper" in many languages, the chili (Capsicum) has nothing in common with it. It is actually a cousin of the bell pepper, and can be used fresh, in powder, chopped, or in seeds, which contain the most capsaicin, which is what gives a spicy taste. As you probably know, chili is the basis of all curries.

The base of curry is not one spice, but a mixture of spices, which varies from household to household. It usually includes coriander (kottamalli), which is mostly used as a seed, and fenugreek (uluhal), an angular seed that was popular in Greco-Roman antiquity. Another very important ingredient is the root of ginger (inguru), which is very good for you, just like another root, turmeric (kaha). The last ingredient in the mix is cumin (suduru), which can be milder and then called maduru, also used in sweet dishes or distilled into alcohol with a flavor reminiscent of Alsatian kummel.