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Black Pepper
Black pepper from India’s Malabar Coast was one of the most valuable goods on ancient trade…
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Black Pepper vs Cardamom
Compare Black Pepper (India) and Cardamom (India) side by side — origin, maker, price, materials and what the difference actually means.
The short answer
- Region Malabar Coast, India Cardamom Hills, Kerala, India
- Made since Traded since at least 2000 BC Recorded since antiquity; described botanically in 1811
- Source originhttps://originandsource.com/andsource.com Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Side by side
Download as PDF| Field | Black Pepper | Cardamom |
|---|---|---|
| Country | India | India |
| Type | SPICES | SPICES |
| Maker | Indian spice farmers | — |
| Region | Malabar Coast, India | Cardamom Hills, Kerala, India |
| Made since | Traded since at least 2000 BC | Recorded since antiquity; described botanically in 1811 |
| Verified record | Yes | Yes |
| Market trend | — | $26.51/kg (+172.9% since 2016) |
| Source | originhttps://originandsource.com/andsource.com | Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew |
Black Pepper
Black pepper from India’s Malabar Coast was one of the most valuable goods on ancient trade routes, prized enough that
- Peppercorns were once so valuable in medieval Europe that they were literally counted out coin by coin.
Cardamom
Cardamom is the dried fruit capsule of Elettaria cardamomum, a plant whose native range Kew records as south-west India alone. It is the third most expensive spice in the world after saffron and vanilla, and almost uniquely among spices its price is set in the open, at daily auctions in Kerala whose results the Spices Board of India publishes the same day.
- Kew records the native range as south-west India and nowhere else; everywhere else it grows, it was carried.
- Each capsule holds 15 to 20 seeds, and the aroma is in the seed, not the pod.
- It is the third most expensive spice in the world, after saffron and vanilla.
- The price is set by public auction in Kerala and published the same day by the Spices Board of India.
- On 14 September 2026 two Kerala auction houses sold about 148 tonnes between them.
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