Sarawak black pepper is a grain of black pepper that is harvested on the island of Borneo in Malaysia.
It is a black pepper of very high quality and very tasty in the mouth.
It is harvested by hand grain after grain, as with Madagascar vanilla, which gives it extraordinary quality.
Then dried in the sun, it will develop woody notes and fresh fruit that will make your taste buds travel.
Buy the best Sarawak black pepper and discover a powerful, fruity and woody black pepper.
Arnaud invites you to discover the best peppers in the world.
Grown in the State of Sarawak, on the island of Borneo, by small Malaysian family farms.
Dried indoors, with continuous hot air, within 24 hours of harvesting — a rare method that preserves aromas that sun-drying typically disperses.
Ahead of Tellicherry and Kampot, Sarawak is the one that hits hardest in my selection — a frank power, carried by a woody and citrus background.
The Sarawak grain in hand: its regular size, its deep brown-black color, and its cold scent — woody, citrus, almost cocoa-like, very different from a generic black pepper.
There is a handful of black peppers that are always cited as examples when talking about "grand crus": Kampot from Cambodia, Indian Tellicherry, and Sarawak from Malaysia. The latter is undoubtedly the most unknown of the three, and that is a mistake — it is also the one that most surprises people accustomed to everyday black pepper, which is brutal and one-dimensional.
I am Arnaud Sion, creator of Le Comptoir de Toamasina. I have been selecting peppers since 2010, and I have tasted, compared, and spat out more grains than I could count — from Madagascar to Cambodia, from India to Indonesia. Sarawak holds a special place in this map of peppers: it is the most pungent in my entire range, the one I recommend to those who find their other peppers too mild.
I am not an importer: I buy this pepper in Europe, from a supplier, and I am the one who selects each batch according to precise criteria — the regularity of the size, the color, and above all the perfume the moment the bag is opened, which never deceives.
Technical sheet
Whole black peppercorns, originating from the State of Sarawak, on the island of Borneo in Malaysia, selected for their regularity and aromatic intensity.
Comparative Sensory Analysis
Three great black peppers, three very distinct characters
Sarawak · Tellicherry · Kampot
Sarawak is a Malaysian State located on the island of Borneo, a territory shared with Indonesia and Brunei. It is there, in an equatorial climate that is hot and humid all year round, that pepper cultivation has developed since the 19th century, driven in particular by Chinese immigration to the region. Today, production remains largely in the hands of small family farms.
What truly distinguishes Sarawak from other great peppers is its drying method. Elsewhere in the world, pepper is traditionally dried outdoors over long periods, which allows some of its most volatile aromatic compounds to escape. In Sarawak, the grain is dried indoors, under a continuous flow of hot air, within twenty-four hours of harvesting. The result is a pepper that retains an unusual aromatic freshness — it is precisely this citrus note that distinguishes it immediately upon tasting.
The harvest takes place once a year, between April and June, by hand, grain by grain. The pepper is then classified according to a quality system specific to the region, which distinguishes several grades of fineness — the most sought-after corresponds to regular, dense, and uniformly colored grains.
Many people who buy a "quality" black pepper are actually disappointed: they expected real power, and they encounter an elegant but timid grain, which preserves finesse at the expense of a shock. This is not a flaw in itself — but it's not what everyone is looking for.
Sarawak is the opposite: it is the most pungent pepper in my entire selection. The bite is immediate, frank, without restraint. And that is precisely what makes its aromatic complexity so interesting: it does not need to apologize behind the power, it arrives just after, in a second beat — the wood, the lemon, the cocoa that persist once the burn drops. It is a pepper for those who want to feel that they are peppering, not simply suggesting it.
Even before cooking, crush a grain between your fingers and smell: the wood and lemon should rise immediately.
For meats and fish, a coarse grind preserves the aromatic complexity better than a fine powder.
As with any great pepper, part of its fragrance evaporates in the heat — reserve the bulk of the dose for the end.
