Allspice

Pimenta dioica is a handsome evergreen tree growing 10 to 18 metres high, with smooth grey bark, glossy aromatic leaves and clusters of small white flowers. The round, pea-sized berries are picked green and sun-dried until dark reddish brown, hard and wrinkled, each holding two tiny dark seeds.

The aroma is warm, sweet and peppery, with notes of clove, cinnamon, nutmeg and pepper. Whole berries are 4 to 7 mm across, and they are sold whole for pickling, stews and brines, or ground to a fine brown powder for baking. The leaves and wood are also aromatic, and the wood is used to smoke meat in Jamaica.

The tree is native to the Greater Antilles, southern Mexico and Central America, with Jamaica long the world's leading source and the plant's flavour so tied to the island that it is also called Jamaica pepper. It grows best in tropical lowland forest with well-drained limestone soils.

The English name allspice dates to the 17th century, coined because the flavour seemed to combine several spices. The Spanish term pimienta, meaning pepper, gave rise to the name pimento, since Columbus and later explorers mistook the berry for pepper. Dioica means two houses, because trees are generally male or female.

Indigenous Caribbean peoples used allspice well before Europeans arrived. The Taíno are described as preserving and flavouring meat over smouldering green allspice wood, a technique later adopted by the Maroons of Jamaica and said to be an ancestor of jerk cooking. Spanish explorers encountered the berries in the early 16th century and brought them to Europe, where they became a cherished spice, in part because they were an alternative to costly Asian peppers.

By the 17th century, allspice was exported from Jamaica in substantial quantities, and it was used in sausages, pickles, mulled drinks, and spiced baking across Europe. In Scandinavia, it entered preserved fish and meat dishes, while in Britain and America it became part of gingerbread and pumpkin pie spice mixes.

Jamaica still produces much of the world's supply, with Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico also important. The berries are harvested by hand when mature but green. Jamaican jerk seasoning remains the best-known dish, and allspice's oil, eugenol-rich, is also used in perfumery, liqueurs, and for flavouring in the food industry.

Whole berries are added to pickles, brines, stocks, curries and slow-cooked meats; ground allspice is used in jerk seasoning, spice cakes, pumpkin pie, cookies, mulled wine, sausages and ketchup. In Middle Eastern cooking, it flavours meat dishes, rice and stews, and in Scandinavian cuisine it is essential for herring and meat preparations.

Its essential oil is used in perfumery and dental products, and the wood of the tree is used to smoke meats and for walking sticks. Whole berries are also used in mulling mixes, pickling brines, and in the Caribbean to make pimento dram, a rum-based liqueur.

Allspice contains eugenol and other aromatic compounds that give it antioxidant and antimicrobial activity in laboratory tests. Eugenol has long been used in dentistry as a mild analgesic. Culinary amounts add flavour and trace minerals but have no proven medical effect, and claims for digestive or pain relief are based mostly on traditional use rather than strong clinical trials.