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Welcome to Kerala Spices
What is Spices?
Spices is a aromatic vegetable product used
as a flavoring or condiment. The term was formerly applied
also to pungent or aromatic foods, to ingredients of incense
or perfume, and to embalming agents. Modern usage tends to
limit the term to flavorings used in food or drinks, although
many spices have additional commercial uses, e.g., as ingredients
of medicines, perfumes, incense, and soaps. Spices include
stimulating condiments, e.g., pepper, mustard, and horseradish;
aromatic spices, e.g., cloves, cinnamon,
nutmeg, anise,
and mace; and sweet herbs, e.g., thyme,
marjoram, sage,
and mint. Spices
are taken from the part of the plant richest in flavor—bark,
stem, flower bud, fruit, seed, or leaf. Although spices are
very commonly used in the form of a powder, some are used
as tinctures obtained by extracting essential oils and many
are used whole.
Garlic, chives, caraway, mustard,
and many herbs grow in temperate regions, and vanilla, allspice,
and red pepper are indigenous to the West Indies and South
America. Most of the major spices,
however, are produced in the East Indies and tropical Asia.
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