allspice

Allspice is Pimenta dioica, a tree native to the Caribbean, Central America, and southern Mexico. The dried unripe berries taste like a combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. English traders in Jamaica in the early 1600s, unable to classify this unfamiliar flavor, called it 'all-spice' — all the spices at once. The name stuck, and it has been confusing people ever since. Most Americans who buy ground allspice believe they are buying a spice blend.

The Spanish called it pimienta de Jamaica — Jamaican pepper — because the dried berries look like peppercorns. The tree is called pimento in Jamaica, which is why 'pimento' and 'allspice' refer to the same plant. The Maya and Aztecs used it long before European contact. Mayan chocolate drinks included allspice. When Christopher Columbus encountered it in Jamaica in 1494, he assumed it was black pepper, because he was looking for black pepper.

Jamaica produces most of the world's allspice. The tree grows elsewhere in the Caribbean and Central America, but Jamaican allspice is considered the finest. Jerk seasoning — the marinade that defines Jamaican grilling — depends on allspice as its base note. The entire flavor profile of jerk chicken is built on this one berry, combined with Scotch bonnet peppers and thyme.

Allspice is one of the few spices that remained a New World monopoly. Unlike vanilla, cacao, and chili peppers, which were transplanted to Asia and Africa, allspice trees grow poorly outside their native range. Attempts to cultivate them commercially in Southeast Asia have mostly failed. The tree, apparently, likes the Caribbean and is not interested in moving.