Cardamon Pods 28g

Cardamon Pods 28g

Almost menthol-like, cardamom gives a warming aromatic citric-floral note. Often combined with Tangerine to give a taste of Christmas. They are contained in small pods that have a wonderful aroma and an enticing warm, spicy-sweet flavour.

Native to southern India but also cultivated in Guatemala, Indo China and Tanzania, cardamom is a unique spice that is as essential to tea in India as to sausages in the Western world. The seeds come from a plant belonging to the ginger family and are contained in small pods around the size of a cranberry.

As with many popular gin botanicals, cardamom pods were valued for their medicinal qualities ahead of their taste. Ancient Egyptians doubled it up as a mouthwash/embalming solution, and Greeks and Romans added it to perfumes and ointments. Its medicinal use has varied from curing congestion and tuberculosis to spider and snake bites. Modern medicine believes cardamom to have mood-elevating properties and, as such, is used to treat depression.

Cardamom has a pungent and identifiable aroma in spice form, but once it has been distilled, it becomes very green, like a blanket of grass. There is a definite piquancy on the nose as well, and to taste, it is identifiable only as a slightly perfumed flavour, sweet at the fore with a fiery finish. Green cardamom seeds lend an additional eucalyptol flavour to gins, while black cardamom adds a more smoky finish.