Cardamom

Cardamom is the only spice that is cool and warm at the same time. The first breath is almost eucalyptus, bright and clean; the second is sweet, resinous and deep. It is the spice I reach for when a composition needs intelligence rather than heat.

What cardamom is

Cardamom oil is steam distilled from the seeds inside the small green pods of Elettaria cardamomum, a tall plant of the ginger family that grows in the shade of wet tropical forests. The oil is built on two molecules in tension: cineole, which gives the cool, fresh, slightly camphoraceous top, and terpinyl acetate, which gives the warm, sweet, balsamic body. The balance between them is what makes cardamom so refined. It is spice without weight.

Where our cardamom comes from

Ours comes from Cobán, in the department of Alta Verapaz in the highlands of Guatemala. Cardamom was carried there from India in the early twentieth century, and the cloud forests around Cobán proved so perfect for it that Guatemala is now the largest exporter of cardamom in the world. The plant grows under the forest canopy at altitude, in near permanent mist, and the pods that ripen there are pale green and intensely aromatic, with a cleaner, more resinous profile than the darker Indian types. It is a cardamom that smells of cool mountain forest rather than the spice market.

How cardamom smells

Warm and spicy, camphoraceous, balsamic and woody. It opens with a cool, almost minty freshness, then settles into a sweet, resinous warmth with a faint woodiness that lasts well into the heart of a composition.

Cardamom in our chapters

• VIISultanat OudThe Deep Roots · in the opening

  In Sultanat Oud it opens the chapter with lavender and rosemary, the cool spice that leads the way down to the roots.

• VIIIRoyale OudThe Taproot · in the opening

  In Royale Oud it sits in the opening beside bergamot, juniper and davana, the warmth that first hints at the resins of the taproot.

A note from the atelier

Cardamom above oud is a pairing with deep roots in the coffee and incense cultures of the Arabian peninsula. In both of my deepest chapters it is the first spice you meet, and it tells you where the journey is going.

Questions about cardamom