Product Review

Tasmanian pepper or mountain pepper is an attractive evergreen shrub from Australia. Its berries and leaves are used as spices with heat similar to pepper. It is mostly used in modern bushfood cuisine. The Tasmanian pepper plant grows 2-3 m high with an open form. The dark green leaves are lanceolate, the stems red. As the name suggests, Tasmanian pepper is native to Tasmania and also sparsely found in Gippsland, Victoria. It loves moist, cool gullies in rainforests. When people speak of Australian pepper, they usually mean Tasmannia lanceolata. Other native pepper varieties are Dorrigo pepper (bot.: Tasmannia stipitata) and Alpine Pepper (bot.: Tasmannia xerophila). Tasmanian pepper was the first Tasmannia species used as a spice by white settlers. It was exported to Great Britain, where it is cultivated and sold under the name Cornish Pepperleaf. It is mainly used in the kitchens of Cornwall. Tasmanian pepper tastes slightly sweet at first, then very hot. Its heat is caused by polygodial, which is also found in water pepper. Tasmanian pepper leaves a sensation of numbness in the mouth, similar to that caused by Sichuan pepper. Wild Pepper has 4 times the anti-oxidants than that of the benchmark Blueberries.