Allspice

A Caribbean tree

Pimenta dioica, also known as Pimenta officinalis, is a small evergreen tree of the myrtle family, Myrtaceae, with aromatic elliptical leaves. It grows wild in the Caribbean, in Central America and in southern Mexico.

English calls it allspice, pimento or Jamaica pepper; French also says toute-épice or poivre de la Jamaïque. The tree is grown in Mexico, Honduras, Cuba and Kerala, in India, but Jamaica remains by far the leading producer and exporter.

From berry to essential oil

The spice is the berry, picked green at its full size and dried in the sun. Its English name, allspice, comes from its flavor, which seems to combine those of clove, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Two essential oils are obtained by steam distillation, one from the dried berry, the other from the leaf. Eugenol dominates both: most often 60 to 80% in the berry oil, more in the leaf oil, which sometimes exceeds 90%.

Methyl eugenol, 1,8-cineole and caryophyllene complete their profile, so that the leaf oil closely resembles clove leaf oil in its composition.

In perfumes

Its warm, spicy scent serves perfumes as well as aftershave lotions and cosmetics; the oil is also an industrial source of eugenol, the molecule that carries the scent of clove.

Givenchy slips allspice leaf into the red, spicy accord of L’Interdit Rouge, with blood orange and ginger; Horace opens Mezcal Musc with pimento, cumin and pink pepper.