Cardamom has a pungent and identifiable aroma in spice form but once it’s been distilled it becomes very green, like a blanket of grass. There is a definite piquancy on the nose as well and to taste it’s identifiable only as itself – a slightly perfumed flavour, sweet at the fore with a fiery finish.
Green Cardamom Pods and Seeds lend an additional eucalyptol flavour to Gins, Vodkas and Tequilas.
Native to southern India, but also cultivated in Guatemala, Indo China and Tanzania, cardamom is a unique spice, as essential to tea in India as it is to sausages in the Western world. The seeds come from a plant belonging to the ginger family, and are contained in small pods around the size of a cranberry.
Additional Information:
As with many popular Gin Botanicals, Cardamom Pods were valued for its medicinal qualities ahead of its taste.
Ancient Egyptians doubled it up as a mouthwash/embalming solution and Greeks and Romans added it to perfumes and ointments. Its medicinal use has been varied from curing congestion and tuberculosis to spider and snake bites.
Modern medicine believes Cardamom to have mood-elevating properties, and as such is used to treat depression.
