Long Pepper

Long pepper is the dried fruit of Piper longum, a flowering vine native to India and Southeast Asia, related to but botanically distinct from black pepper, Piper nigrum. The fruit forms as a small, elongated, catkin-like spike rather than the individual round berries of black pepper, and delivers a hotter, more pungent flavor with sweet, warm undertones. Long pepper was a major spice in ancient Rome, often more prized and highly traded than black pepper, before its trade declined following the European opening of sea routes to the black pepper growing regions of India.