Rare Peppers

Arnaud Sion, the creator of Le Comptoir de Toamasina, invites you to discover peppers that will take you off the beaten path. Each origin is a discovery that inspires escape and the unveiling of a natural treasure. Peppercorns that are nuggets of nature. A small nugget full of flavors.

Pepper was once used as currency, and today it is a journey for the senses. Each pepper is the result of a selection designed to invite you on a culinary journey. A rare pepper must surprise and astonish with its quality, its palette of flavors, but it must also have a good maturation process like the Madagascar vanilla bean. So, set off to discover flavors of grapefruit, mint, blueberry, and give your creative cooking a new meaning.

Berries and peppers are universal spices that will make your taste buds travel. Pepper is the pearl of all spices. Along with sea salt, there isn't a recipe without this little marvel. Arnaud, creator of Le Comptoir de Toamasina and a private chef in Brazil, wanted to create Le Comptoir de Toamasina because it wasn't easy to find good vanilla, good peppers, and especially pepper mills with good peppercorns.

This small grain, with its spicy, earthy, woody, and biting flavor, holds an important place in the history and gastronomic development of several nations. The unique taste of pepper accompanies most savory dishes and some sweet ones. Pepper was once so rare and precious that it was used as currency to pay taxes, rent, and dowries. Today, several countries produce excellent quality pepper, including India, Cameroon, Madagascar, Vietnam, Cambodia, Japan, Laos, Brazil, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Ghana, and Zimbabwe.

On pepper plants, peppercorns grow in clusters. The pepper plant is part of the Piperaceae family, a family of tropical plants. It takes about eight years for the plant to produce its first fruit. It takes several weeks for the pepper berries to ripen; before ripening, they are green, then yellow, and finally red. All types of pepper therefore come from the same fruit and vary depending on the harvesting phase, the drying time of the seeds, and the preparation technique.

Green pepper, black pepper, white pepper, and red pepper are the different types of pepper. The name pepper is only designated for berries of the Piperaceae family. All other berries that are not part of this family are called "false peppers". These berries are often incorrectly referred to as peppers. This is the case with "pink pepper", "allspice", and "Sichuan pepper". "Grey pepper" does not really exist! This is a verbal misuse. It is actually a bland combination of white pepper and black pepper powders.

The history of rare pepper dates back to 2,000 years BC. Since Antiquity, pepper has been a spice worth its weight in gold. Although there is a difference between the fruit of the long pepper plant and the fruit of piper nigrum pepper because they are cousins (like Timut Berry and Green Sichuan Berry), pepper has always been a part of cooking. Traces of it have been found as far back as ancient Greece, originating from the western Indian subcontinent.

Portuguese exports would compete with Italian exports in Europe thanks to the voyages of Vasco da Gama, who brought it from India directly to the European market. Not to mention Bartolomeu Dias who would pass the Cape of Good Hope. It took at least two millennia to get our hands on the peppers and blends we use today.

Pepper has been the symbol of wealth. For a long time, buying pepper was considered a social status symbol, particularly in Europe, where the price of pepper was quite high. You could pay with peppercorns back then. A spice rated like gold.

Black pepper (Piper nigrum) is one of the oldest and most well-known spices in the world, widely used in cuisines worldwide. Like oil today, it was the most important agricultural commodity in the past. The chemical ingredient, piperine, gives it a pungent and peppery taste.

More than 4000 years ago, it is believed to have appeared in the wild on the west coast of India, known as the Malabar Coast. It took a millennium, or 3000 years, to begin cultivating it. Discover the rest of the story here in the history of pepper.

Each of our product sheets provides explanations about history, tips for use, and recipes. Let yourself be transported by the discoveries of Le Comptoir de Toamasina. Chef Arnaud offers 7 tips for buying a good rare pepper:

Arnaud Sion, the creator of Le Comptoir de Toamasina, was the youngest spice researcher to our knowledge. It was at the age of 21 in 2010 that he began traveling the world in search of flavors. Our company is 100% family-owned and we also work with family plantations in Brazil.

Rare berries and peppers will have a very different flavor from other peppers. First of all because of their rarity, and then by their singular aromatic footprints. Smell, crunch, taste, and do not hesitate to blend these excellent peppers. The rare whole peppercorns come from the 4 corners of the world and bring you incredible flavors.

We love helping you discover rarity and peppers that will take you off the beaten path. When you start cooking with a rare pepper, you will quickly fall in love, just like with a beautiful vanilla bean.

Rare pepper possesses a very impressive aromatic footprint. Most often it is used to have a more exclusive flavor than classic black or white pepper. We like to use it in soups, meats, vegetables, vinaigrettes, and sauces. Always add pepper at the end of cooking; a pinch is enough to subtly enhance a dish.

Did you know? Rare pepper loves its friend salt and will work wonders in all your dishes. We advise you to beat it in a mortar just before serving, as this is how it will best emit its symphony of flavors. Do not hesitate to do like the Brazilians: crush it to sublimate your BBQ meats.

In general, they can be used on white and red meats, raw or cooked vegetables, starches, salads, marinades, and even fruit desserts (tart, crumble) and chocolate desserts (muffins, fondants). It is suitable for all fish, especially high-quality fish.

When you want to discover the world of pepper, you start with classic black pepper and then you want to know about rare and wild peppers. Madagascar black pepper is certainly, along with Vietnamese pepper, the first grain you will come to know. Then little by little, you will discover new flavors like Madagascar wild pepper which comes from the vine that is cousin to black pepper.

In cooking shows, we see more and more prodigies using rare peppers like long pepper fruit or Timut berry. Timut Berry is the trendy berry; great chefs love it for its incredible flavors of pink grapefruit. It's a rare berry like its cousin the Sichuan Berry.

But beware, timut berry and Sichuan are false peppers: they do not come from piper nigrum but from a shrub. The Portuguese were the first to import pepper to Europe, and in the language of Camões, peppers and berries became pimenta. In France, a 1945 law grants the exclusive term "pepper" to piper nigrum.

Fall under the spell of the rare peppers of Le Comptoir de Toamasina and taste magical nuggets. You will discover an incredible range with notes that will make you travel: journey through Cambodia with Kampot, discover Java and its long pepper. Before traveling physically, make your plate creative!

Le Comptoir de Toamasina is about selling excellent and high-quality pepper. We have partnerships in France, Europe, and around the world to offer you extraordinary flavors.