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Basically in everything. Similar to tomatoes from a garden compared to tomatoes from a supermarket. Anyone who still hasn't grasped the essence of the uniqueness of the peppercorns we import from the Kampot province in Cambodia may wonder what makes this pepper better than others. To understand why it is considered the best pepper in the world, we must go directly to the plantations of small Kampot farms, where pepper vines sprout from mineral-rich soil and peppercorns ripen under the beneficial rays of the local sun. White, black, green or red? All types of pepper are actually the fruits of a single plant, the black pepper vine. Similar to many other plants, the quality of the fruits is influenced by a variety of factors, with the most important being the environment in which the plant grows and the way it and its fruits are cared for. Just as French or Italian slopes are ideal for growing grapevines and thus these countries produce truly quality wines, Cambodia’s Kampot is also a suitable place for growing pepper. The pepper vines here grow from a substrate that has an ideal balance of sand, clays, and humus. The soil is rich in minerals, providing the root system of the vines with ideal nutrition for rapid growth and the production of truly high-quality peppercorns. Quality soil is only the foundation Kampot is a coastal region with a climate influenced by the nearby ocean. It is humid and genuinely warm. Sunlight hits the leaves and subsequently the ripening peppercorns with ideal intensity. The plants are neither burnt nor dried out, but their tissues are constantly warmed and the photosynthesis process runs at full capacity. The sun in the ripening fruits promotes the formation of characteristic substances such as fructose, piperine, and unique flavor and aromatic tones that contribute to the quality of the peppercorn. On top of all this, add centuries-old unchanged methods of cultivating pepper vines that local small farmers apply. No chemical sprays, no synthetic fertilizers, just pure nature and fertilization using guano, which is extremely nutritious bat droppings. Buy a tomato from a supermarket that has been bathed in chemicals from a young age and compare its taste to a tomato grown in your own garden. Exactly the same difference applies to Kampot pepper grown on small farms versus pepper from huge large-scale plantations where the vines are continuously supplemented with chemicals because they are grown in unsuitable environments and chemicals have favorable conditions to compensate. Last but not least, there is also the subsequent processing of the pepper. Our pepper undergoes strict selection. Poor or insufficiently large grains are discarded, so only the true top-quality grains end up in the bags. However, this cannot be said about the content of Package from mainstream brands, where besides dried peppercorns you can also find various impurities, twigs, and even encounter mold. This pepper is usually transported for several months in large bags on ships, where it becomes musty, loses the little quality it had, and molds. We vacuum pack our pepper immediately after harvesting and sorting and send it by air to Europe. Therefore, we can proudly and confidently say that our pepper is truly better than the pepper commonly available in supermarkets.

If you taste black pepper purchased in a regular store, it will most likely not surprise you much with its flavor. It will taste ordinary, slightly spicy, but often bland and completely uninspired. However, if you indulge in the taste of pepper from Kampot, you will find that pepper does not have to be just sharp and hot, but can hide an unexpected flavor surprise, in which you can recognize tones you definitely would not expect in pepper! Test your taste buds with genuine Kampot pepper Pepper in this regard is somewhat like rum. While searching for something exceptional in classic domestic spirits is a somewhat naive effort, expensive Cuban rums are much more interesting and, above all, a more pleasant experience in terms of taste. Similarly, Kampot pepper brings a whole range of flavor tones and incredible aroma. The whole experience begins after grinding, when essential oils with notes of eucalyptus, mint, camphor, thyme are released, accompanied by the scent of lime peel, and the attentive can even catch a bit of the maritime aroma of the Cambodian coast. After two to three minutes, fruitier and less harsh tones unfold. Dominant is the scent of peach and nectarine, highlighted by the earthy tone of Cambodian soil, cut pine, and freshly mown grass. Perfect taste and versatile use All this awaits you when you inhale the scent of the black gold from Kampot. Upon placing it in your mouth, the aroma alternates with a unique flavor experience dominated by a nutty gentle spiciness, without the characteristic harsh tones known from cheap pepper. The spiciness evokes a feeling of warmth in the mouth, but not the classic sharp burning — leave that to chili, which contains capsaicin.– Black pepper can be described as the diplomat from Kampot, introducing its consumers to the world of pepper through a very pleasant and just right intense experience, after which you will never look at this spice the same way again.

If you go to some of the retail chains and look for the highest quality pepper there, we advise you to turn around and leave immediately. Standard spice sellers, who have at least 10 other types of spices on the shelf besides pepper, pack pepper into colorful packages, but you won't learn much about the quality of the pepper inside. So how to recognize truly quality peppercorns? Several important indicators For pepper from the Kampot region to earn the honor of reaching your table, it must meet several criteria that are monitored during harvest, selection directly at the farmers, and subsequently also during selection here with us. Moreover, there is a so-called Book of Specifications – a book that precisely defines the parameters that Kampot pepper must boast to ensure each grain achieves the highest quality and thus taste. The first important quality indicator is grain size. Small peppercorns reveal that growth did not occur under ideal conditions, which also reflects in the flavor quality. Grain size is not a standard for every type of pepper in the world, but for Kampot pepper, it tells you a lot about quality. The second important criterion is the weight and hardness of the fruit. It may be beautifully large, but when it weighs half as much as the other grains, it is clear that its core did not develop properly. Such a core can best be detected by immersion in water; in such a case, problematic (light, hollow) grains float to the surface and reveal their "color". :-) Organic or not? Last but not least, the quality of pepper also depends on chemical purity. We can proudly say that chemistry and our farmers are not friends and they prefer traditional and even more sustainable methods that leave no room for chemical fertilizers or insecticides. They fertilize primarily with cow manure, and everything undergoes regular inspections by certified agricultural organizations. Our pepper is therefore not only 100% organic but also gluten-free and pure – it contains no additives, pesticides, or grain residues, which is common practice for "cheap peppers". 100% selection – a word behind which anything can hide For us, it means that when you open a bag or a test tube, inside you will find 100% pepper only and no surprises like small stones, twigs, dust, or other impurities commonly found in chain store peppers. Achieving 100% quality is not easy – Kampot pepper must be hand-picked with tweezers by farmers in Cambodia and sent to us in the Czech Republic at about 98% purity. We then send it through a sortex machine, which detects even the last blade of grass and cleans the pepper to 100%. ☺

Black pepper is a commodity, found in almost every store on the spice shelf. Although each peppercorn and every crushed fragment may seem like the same product, some black peppers can differ from one another. The difference lies in the price, taste, but also the impact of its cultivation on our environment and the farmers who grew it. Peppers without a trademark do not have an easy fate If we were to perform a chemical analysis of the contents of pepper bags sold by traditional multinational companies, we would find that besides pepper, they also contain other substances that have nothing to do with the natural growth process of pepper. These substances, often only in trace amounts, are a reminder of the chemicals with which the pepper plants were treated and the artificial fertilizers used to keep the plants alive in already completely depleted soil. Mass production of pepper, where such practices are completely common, incredibly devastates not only the soil but is also demanding on water resources and burdens the entire local environment. Moreover, such pepper is bought below price and constantly moves through markets, where it is resold in tons to more and more sellers. This increases its price, while over time – often even several months – its already poor taste decreases. Kampot pepper guarantees the highest possible quality The contents of a single pepper bag purchased in a supermarket have thus gone through a journey full of pesticides, emissions, and unfair trade practices. However, there is another way of cultivation, more ethical and positive, which also concerns our pepper, namely the true Kampot pepper from .pepper..field. It is unique not only because of the region where it is grown but mainly because of the farmers' approach and the way it reaches your hands. No pesticides, no artificial fertilizers, just a natural process during which the pepper plants have been cultivated for thousands of years. Kampot farmers are faithful to the cultivation methods of their ancestors, which allow them to grow peppercorns with a unique taste. We discovered this during our travels through Cambodia, and just as years ago we purchased our first pepper for personal use directly from the farmers, even today we buy pepper directly for you in this way. Personal selection of the best grains and direct support of the farmers are the foundations of our entire project, which brings pepper sought after by the world’s best chefs to the Czech Republic. Every precious little bag you hold in your hand is freshly packed this very month and imported directly from the farmer to us without any middlemen. Because this is the path that makes sense and that we enjoy – honest and direct!

In our second episode of the journey for peppers, which basically are not peppers at all, we again look into different corners of our planet from which plants known for their characteristic taste and aroma named after peppercorn originate. Their naming often happened based on confused translations, thanks to which today paprika (pepper) in the English language has the same designation as pepper (pepper), or due to similarities with classic pepper. Chili named as pepper This is also the case with the so-called cayenne pepper, named after the port city of Cayenne in French Guiana. This "pepper" is actually a spicy, finely ground paprika that plays an important role, for example, in Mexican cuisine. It gives it that hellish spiciness. In our first encounter with non-pepper pepper, we ended up in Africa. On this continent, you can also find a spice called allspice. These are the fruits of an interesting plant found in the swampy areas of the West African coast. Again, these are fruits with a spicy taste, thanks to which the grains hidden in a large pod are sometimes mistaken for classic pepper. Peppery taste, but it is not pepper And we will still stay in Africa thanks to Ethiopian pepper. It is also known as bitter wood and is a tree growing in the regions of sub-Saharan Africa. It also produces seeds with a distinct pungent taste. The seeds in this case are used not only as a seasoning for dishes but are also popular for their medicinal effects. Even when you add a bit of that mountain pepper to your food, it is not pepper at all. These are the fruits of a shrub from the region of Australia and nearby Tasmania. The taste of this spice is initially surprisingly sweet but very quickly changes to peppery. We will end our story with the intoxicating drink kawa or awa, which is obtained from the roots of a plant known as the intoxicating pepper vine. It is a drink characterized by its relaxing and stimulating effects, similar to coffee. So next time you buy pepper that is not labeled as black, green, white, or red, it definitely is not true pepper. There is only one true pepper, and the best one is grown in the Cambodian region of Kampot. If you want to learn its original story, you can do so with us! Did you miss the first part of our pepper revelation? You can read it here.

There is only one true and original pepper. It comes from the fruits of the plant known as black pepper vine, from which black, green, white, and red pepper are obtained. However, the market offers a much wider range of various types of spices labeled as pepper, but they have nothing in common with classic pepper at all. Tastes like pepper, but it is not pepper A well-known example can be Sichuan pepper, also known as fagara. Under this name, you should imagine dried fruits of a Chinese ash species, which have a distinctive aromatic taste. It can be even numbing, so Sichuan pepper is used in small amounts, most often to season poultry. A close relative is sancho pepper, also known as Japanese pepper, which is one of the few dry spices used in Japanese cuisine. A widely known pepper that is actually not pepper is Brazilian pepper, also called pink pepper (mistakenly referred to as red). These are the dried pink berries of a tree from the Anacardiaceae family, growing in long clusters. The pink berry skin is sweet but astringent. The berries are often mixed into various pepper blends, creating an original colorful mosaic. The taste of false pepper can be unpleasantly astringent Pippali, also known as long pepper, are dried fruits of a plant from the peppervine genus, but not black pepper. It is a specific type of spice that smells similar to classic pepper but completely lacks the characteristic pungency and is rather sweet and astringent. It is not very well known here but is widely used as a spice in India. Equally unknown to us may be cubeb pepper. This name refers to the fruits of vines growing in Java, Borneo, or Sumatra. Their peculiarity is that they are almost not cultivated and are therefore collected from wild plants. The fruits, which taste like new spices, are slightly larger than classic pepper. The basic substance of this spice is called cubebin, which is also found in African pepper. This is also known under names such as ashanti or West African tailed pepper. In the regions where it grows, that is in the western, central, and eastern parts of the continent, it is used as a substitute for classic pepper, differing from it by a herbal flavor that is also nowhere near as pungent. Want to continue reading? We have prepared another part for you of the pepper revelations!

Champagne among peppers, which has nothing in common with the white pepper you know. We still remember how the best Czech chefs reacted to it: "Don’t bring me white pepper here, it always smells bad." And in the end, most of them tried white pepper and now use it most gladly. Why? Because true white pepper perfectly and gently underlines every dish without being overly aromatic. What is the difference between white pepper from the store and our white pepper Classic white peppers in stores are peeled from unripe black pepper and tend to become musty, which is why no one likes them. True white pepper, however, is peeled from ripe red pepper and thanks to that acquires qualities sought after by the best world chefs – it gently opens the taste buds and multiplies the flavors in the dish! The stripes on white Kampot pepper also indicate that each peppercorn is peeled by hand, not by machine, preserving the maximum of its nutrients and flavors. Creamy white balls are the opposite of aromatic red pepper – a delicate creamy scent with tones of cedarwood and citrus subtly sneaks into the food. At first, you don’t taste anything, but then all the flavors play to the maximum in your mouth and even the simplest dish becomes a gourmet experience. How is true white pepper obtained? It is the core of true red pepper, obtained by soaking it in water and peeling off the skin. How to use it in the kitchen White Kampot pepper is a king that suits everything. It enchanted us most when grilling dark meats, it is fantastic ground on cheeses and raw dishes, it also pairs well with wine and tapas. It excellently complements vegetable soups, gnocchi, pestos, anything with potatoes, pasta, homemade bread, Asian cuisine or spreads. In Czech cuisine, it gave a new dimension to traditional light sauces such as svíčková. Your bag or tube always contains fresh Kampot pepper, hand-packed no later than a month before sale under our control. This is our huge difference compared to the competition, which you – our customers – will recognize best by the taste of the pepper. Freshness is especially important for white pepper so that it does not become musty.

Do you remember the last time you terribly confused someone? That's exactly what will happen to you with our black pepper. If you expect it to be most similar to the pepper you buy in the supermarket, we recommend pouring out our and any other bag of whole black pepper onto a white plate and visually comparing the peppercorns at first glance. Pepper with a capital P A huge, hard, full, dense, juicy, dark black ball on one plate. A small, shriveled, dull, very light, empty, and possibly even broken ball on the second plate. Black pepper is the most well-known form of the fruits of the Piper nigrum plant. Our farmers handpick it at the beginning of the season as unripe green berries. The harvesting process of this pepper is the simplest among the three basic Kampot peppers – it is picked along entire stems, not just the berries, as is the case with red pepper. Thanks to natural fermentation and drying in the sun, the berries turn black and develop their full flavor. The dark black berries are soaked with intense scents of eucalyptus, thyme, mint, and the camphor typical for Cambodia with tones of sweet pears. When ground, the berries also gain a fresh hint of citrus, which is why Italians love it on their pasta. What to create with black pepper in the kitchen so it’s not boring It definitely won’t be. On the contrary, its complex full pepper flavor makes it a bestseller that you can use almost on anything without having to think long about pairing it with food. Fry, grill, stew, preferably with meat! Black Kampot pepper likes these heat treatments and shines even more. It suits steaks, red meats, classic sauces, soups, but above all any pasta. Without our pepper, most Italian restaurants can’t start their day! In Czech cuisine, it is the most popular of all peppers – it highlights the taste of classic svíčková (marinated beef) as well as strong goulash.