Pepper Voatsiperifery – the wild pepper from Madagascar

Do you know Voatsyperifery, the wild pepper from Madagascar?

The best comes first:

The wild pepper from Madagascar has an extraordinary taste and is exceptionally good.

It smells intensely of pepper and its taste is even more intense than that of ordinary black pepper. It tastes warm and woody, with a slightly smoky and citrus note. 

It belongs to the pepper family and is therefore a true pepper. It grows wild in Madagascar and is harvested from these wild plants. Like other true pepper varieties, it grows upward as a vine along trees.

Voatsiperifery is picked and sorted by hand and the annual harvest is small. Its rarity and laborious extraction explain its higher price than normal black pepper.

In appearance, it resembles the cubeb pepper. Like the latter, each pepper berry has a small stalk. Voatsiperifery, however, is much smaller than cubeb pepper and also not quite as round, but rather elongated.

It’s excellent with fish, seafood, and meat. It also adds an interesting spiciness to sweets, such as fruit salad.

It’s also very good for fresh cheese. Try this recipe for Date-Cream-Cheese-Bacon Appetizers.

Since its essential oils dissipate easily, it’s better if you grind it fresh each time you use it or crush it in a mortar and add it to the dish just before the end of cooking time.

Try it – if you are a pepper lover, you won’t be disappointed!