Bangka Island in Indonesia is famous for the particular fermentation process that farmers use to process their peppercorns, picking fresh pepper and soaking it in open-air fermentation pools for two weeks, using the natural sugar in the peppercorn fruit to create a white pepper that's savory, cheesy and unlike any other we've tasted.

Since we're huge fans of anything funky and fermented, and of spices with very specific methods of processing, we had to go to Bangka to find a farmer to work with. Ethan had planned a trip in the summer of 2017, around the time of the pepper harvest. While he was preparing for the trip, two days before he was scheduled to arrive in Bangka, he got an email, totally out of the blue:

"Dear Ethan Frisch,

I introduce myself my name is Sugiri, I am from Bangka Island have white pepper garden as shown attached.

I see email on your web that you sell many kind of spices.

I would like to offer the corporation to sell pepper to your company, we can start with little volume first then if it is success, we can cooperate for long time.

Let me know if you are looking for organic or conventional pepper.

Finally, this is the offer from me and I will wait good news from you. Thank you very much, have a great day.

Best Regards,

Sugiri"

Ethan responded that he'd be right over.