About Spices

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Spices are the aromatic parts of tropical plants traditionally used to flavour food, or the dried seeds or fruit of temperate plants used in the same way. Some of the substances we call spices come from the bark or roots of certain plants, but the majority are berries, seeds, or dried fruits.

Spices are one of the most remarkable ingredients of Indian cuisine. Without them, Indian food would be as ordinary as the others. Spices  are also one of the reasons why Indian food is becoming popular to people across the globe. The fame of Indian spices is older than the recorded history. The story of Indian Spices is more than 7000 years old. India is known as the “The home of spices”. There is no other country in the world that produces as many kinds of spices as India. The climate of the country is suitable for almost all spices.

The fame of Indian spices is older than the recorded history. The story of Indian Spices is more than 7000 years old.Centuries before Greece and Rome had been discovered, sailing ships were carrying Indian spices, perfumes and textiles to Mesopotamia, Arabia and Egypt. It was the lure of these that brought many seafarers to the shores of India.

Long before Christian era, the Greek merchants thronged the markets of South India, buying many expensive items amongst which spices were one. Epicurean Rome was spending a fortune on Indian spices, silks, brocades, Dhaka Muslin and cloth of gold, etc.It is believed that the Parthian wars were being fought by Rome largely to keep open the trade route to India. It is also said that Indian spices and her famed products were the main lure for crusades and expeditions to the East.

The spices of the East were valuable in those times, During these Middle Ages, a pound of ginger was worth a sheep, a pound of mace worth three sheeps or half a cow. Pepper, the most valuable spice of all, was counted out in individual peppercorns, and a sack of pepper was said to be worth a man`s life. Da Gama`s successful voyage intensified an international power struggle for control over the spice trade. For three centuries afterwards the nations of Western Europe – Portugal, Spain, France, Holland, and Great Britain – fought bloody sea-wars over the spice-producing colonies.