Burlap & Barrel Fermented White Pepper Grinder

Category: Spices

Our Fermented White Pepper comes from a family farm on the island of Bangka, Sumatra, Indonesia. It's grown by a farmer named Pak Sugiri and his son, Ilham. It is picked fresh and then fermented according to traditional methods, using the fruit of the fresh peppercorn.

Highly prized in Indonesia but rarely found in the US, Fermented White Peppercorns add a deep umami flavor and funk to everything they touch. Grind over steak to mimic the flavor of dry aging, over veggies for heat and depth, or in traditional Cantonese and southeast Asian dishes that call for white pepper.

Origin:

Bangka Island, Indonesia

Aliases:

Muntok white peppercorns

Process:

Fermented in a stream, then washed and sun-dried

Ingredients:

Fermented white peppercorns (Piper nigrum)

Tasting notes:

Goat Cheese • Celery • Funky Fermentation

Cooking ideas: Substitute for black peppercorns where you want a funky kick, grind over seafood dishes (especially good in crab cakes), or add to blended vegetable soups, like potato or cauliflower soups

Sourcing:

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.

$9.99

2.00 ounces

SUPPLIER

Burlap & Barrel

Burlap & Barrel is a Public Benefit Corporation building new international food supply chains that are equitable, transparent and traceable.

A single origin spice company, Burlap & Barrel buys spices from farmers around the globe, who they call partners. They’ve eliminated the intermediaries who have traditionally bought and sold spices multiple times before any jar of spice lands in a U.S. customer’s kitchen cabinet. This means their spices are fresher than what you can find from the big spice companies. Spices so potent that they suggest new customers use just half a serving at first, as they sometimes get feedback from customers that the spices are too strong. It's not that the spices are too strong, but rather we are just accustomed to cooking with old spices! Did you know that supermarket spices sometimes have been in transit for three years?!?!?

Another benefit to eliminating spice brokers is that Burlap & Barrel can pay the farmers more for their crops while offering quality spices to the public at affordable prices.

SUPPORTING SMALLHOLDER FARMERS

Burlap & Barrel is working towards ending inequality and exploitation in food systems that disenfranchise skilled farmers.

They do this by:

Connecting smallholder farmers to high-value markets
Educating consumers about the impact of product traceability on human rights
Sourcing unique foods with terroir that are grown biodynamically and organically using traditional techniques

REDEFINING SUSTAINABILITY

Mainstream conversations around food sustainability rarely consider the people involved in growing, harvesting, transporting, processing and cooking food. Sustainability is discussed in terms of environmental impact, or the comfort of livestock providing meat, dairy or eggs.

The folks at Burlap & Barrel believe that the standard measures of sustainability must evolve to consider the conditions in which the farmers who drive global food supply chains earn their livelihoods. Single origin ingredients draw attention to the unique environments in which incredible ingredients grow and to the farmers with the expertise and commitment to grow them well.