Let's face it spices are the best part about eating food they're what go into sauces
seasonings and directly onto our meals to make us want to eat the fact that spices are great has been known from millennia now and
has at certain points in history led to tremendous changes in society
economics and people after all Columbus
Was trying to find a new route to the East Indies to access the spice trade when he accidentally stumbled upon
America that means everything afterwards the colonization the destruction of the indigenous population and even the Atlantic slave trade were all
inverted li caused by the search for spices before that
Caravans would cross deserts and seas to transport spices from one end of the known world
to another not only did this drive the exchange of goods and currency but created cultural interaction and diffusion leading to the spread of ideas
Religions and technology across the world despite the huge role spices have played in human history few people know about the vital role
geography plays in both the growing and usage of spices in foods
Perhaps the most important thing to understand about them is that spices are
Defenses let me explain so the same way predation of smaller animals by larger ones leads to certain animals developing some crazy
Defenses plants are eaten by animals in what's called herbivory
which can lead to plants developing similar defenses over
Time some examples of this include plants growing thorns high off the ground and thick skins like bark but by far the most common form
Of defense plants use are chemical defenses usually by storing up a large amount of toxic chemicals in their bodies
So that when eaten by herbivores
It either kills them or at least injures them enough so that they never eat that plant again so the same way poison dart frogs
Accumulate poison on their skin to deter predators from eating them plants will store poisons in their bodies or fruits to deter herbivores
these poisons are our spices for bigger animals like humans this poison just tastes
Interesting we're different because we have a much higher tolerance than the smaller organisms that these chemicals target by now you might be asking but
They're still toxins right so why do we?
enjoy, eating them at all the answer to this is actually found in the single greatest plant predator on earth
Decomposers more specifically bacteria and fungus most often the toxins are stored in the body
Plants are to prevent the growth of these decomposers inside the body of the plant if it weren't for these chemicals
decomposers could get in and well
Decompose things killing the plant in the process so now think about humans a few thousand years ago they'd hunt and catch animals and sometimes
massive ones whose meat would sustain tribes for days or even weeks but they couldn't simply put their leftovers in the fridge
without that convenience bacteria and fungus like mold would quickly grow and make any leftover food
Rancid hmm if only there was a chemical designed to kill bacteria and fungus that
Was so abundant you could metaphorically say it grows on trees
Oh, wait here's this weird red thing that kind of makes my tongue tingle
When I eat it but it does exactly that
So yeah spices were used to kill any bacteria
And such growing on our food in order to prolong the window in which it could be eaten it also helped mask any bad flavor
The meat had acquired due to rot this made spices
extremely valuable if you wanted to survive you had to be able to stomach these toxins therefore whoever
Was more resilient to the toxins recalled spices were more capable of surviving in times of scarce food options
basically whoever could handle spicier foods could eat the safest food in this way evolution
selected towards us not only being spice
Tolerant but actually for us to enjoy the flavors of spice because it meant we were eating safe food but the use of spice didn't
happen evenly across all human populations
if you think about it we put food in
refrigerators to make them colder so that they last longer this has to do with the metabolism rates of bacteria and such as
metabolisms occur at faster rates and warmer temperatures meaning bacteria can eat and reproduce faster and cause even more damage
Therefore putting food in a warm environment
Will shorten the amount of time that it's safe to eat
What this results in is food rotting faster in areas that experience
warmer climates like the tropics to combat this a greater quantity and diversity of spices are typically used in tropical and subtropical
places to counteract the higher rates of bacterial growth in colder places like the temperate regions the opposite is true
Sometimes the temperature here can fall below freezing and food will stay good if you just leave it outside
Meaning there's less of a need to season it with spices it
Also just so happens that it gets cold right around the same time food gets sparse and preservation becomes a necessity
Think in the summer food is usually
Plentiful and therefore there's no real need to preserve food because you can always find more but in the winter animals take refuge and all
the plants lose their foliage and fruits so the food people can find has to last longer what I'm getting at is the only time
Food needs to be preserved in the temperate areas the environment does it for us
but in the tropical regions the dry season will come to make food scarce but high temperatures persist making spicing food
necessary this explains why cuisine and let's say Britain is
Disgusting but food and let's say India is amazing this is also why so many Europeans valued spices so much and sailed
everywhere in the world looking for trade routes to access these spices on the
Biological side of this because bacteria and fungi grow faster in warmer conditions
Plants around the equator are more likely to store up
Chemical defenses to dissuade them as well so not only did people who lived in the tropics have a greater need for spices they
also had a greater and more diverse arsenal of spices to choose from this has led certain areas on the globe to develop
Abundant natural spices because of this instead of doing what I did with fruits and go through each fruit
Individually I decided this time to go through the hot spots and then catch any spices that don't belong to a certain hot spot at
the end the first important concentration is to be found in India and the rest of Southeast Asia this area stretches from the
Subtropical into the tropical and once hosted the largest and oldest rainforest on the planet southern India is where basal tumeric and black pepper
The most common pepper we use today comes from curry
Also originated here but that's actually a combination of several different spices not just one plant further south it's thought that
cinnamon first began in sri lanka
To the east we have where ginger and the liquorice plant got their start and yeah before you ask it's the root of the licorice
plant that we used to flavour liquorice candy lastly for this region we maybe have the most common spice currently being used in the world
Sugar a lot of people might disagree with this but if you think about it it's just another plant derived
Substance we use to flavor our food which is exactly what every other
Spices to whether or not you consider it a spice though sugar cane the plant responsible for
80% of our sugar production has thought to have come from this region as well nearby or what's the Maluku or malukas islands in Indonesia
However they used to have a much simpler name the Spice Islands from these few small islands cloves mace and nutmeg
originated it was these islands in
Particular that drove the Portuguese and later the Dutch into the East Indies and it was a trade route to these
islands that Columbus
was looking for when he set sail in
1492 then on the other side of the world
Mexico was also a hub of maybe a lot of people's favorites it was here that both paprika and vanilla
originated what's strange is that traces of vanillin the compound that gives vanilla is flavor has been found in old-world tombs dating back
thousands of years
archaeologists found the substance coating the jugs within an untouched Bronze Age tomb in Megiddo Israel
This indicates there might have been some exchange between the Americas and the old world almost four thousand years ago
Also they were using vanilla to flavor their olive oil which I don't know just doesn't sound good if that isn't enough though it was
Also here that the cacao tree what we use to make chocolate was also first
Domesticated most likely by the Olmec or Mo Kaya people though the plant itself likely
Originated further south in the Amazon region this plant was so prized then it's beans
were used as currency throughout several different Mesoamerican cultures
What's funny is that initially this plant wasn't desired for its beans
which is the part we now use to make chocolate but instead it was the sweet pulp of the plant that was highly valued
because it would be fermented and used to make alcohol
Iran is actually where a lot of spices are grown today as it's hot and arid
climate replicate those found in places like the Mediterranean and Mexico very well as for what spices originated here both cilantro
Coriander gathered the same thing and cumin came from this area but I saved the most important urban
spice hotspot for last the
Mediterranean region to start the most common type of bay leaf comes from this region though different types can be found across the world
chamomile
also came from this region
mostly used 14 now it got its name in English via French via Latin via the Greek word - my melon meaning Earth
Apple fennel plants aren't too popular but they're one of the main ingredients in making absinthe the Greek word for fennel is marathons and
Marathon literally translates into field of fennel so the Greek city of Marathon was?
Originally just built in a field of fennel and named accordingly then a battle between the Greeks and Persians
Happened here and someone had to run
26
Miles to Athens to tell them about it and that's how we ended up with the marathon race
lavender also came from the
Mediterranean region which for the longest time went by the Greek name nard so good call switching into lavender mint has spread across the world
But it's thought to have originated here as well though it grows best
In wetter climates primarily mint has grown near other more important plants so its pungent smell
Keeps other pests away it's basically only humans that actually like the smell and taste a mint which is weird because mint is almost exclusively
used
Because we think it smells good breath mints
Toothpaste and mouthwash and chewing gum all used the aroma of this leaf
Which only exists to keep herbivores from eating it with its awful smell actually I guess that does make sense
because if your breath smells like something that kills bacteria then your mouth must not have any
Bacteria and therefore must be clean anyway mustard plants, also got their start in this region
while many might be thinking of the condiment mustard which is made from the seeds of mustard plants mustard as a
family includes the genus Brassica which also includes turnips cabbage collard greens kale cauliflower
Broccoli Brussels sprouts and canola plants yeah mustards are more important than people realize oregano on the other hand is known to have originated
Specifically in Greece and its name comes from the Greek words or O's meaning mountain and GaN O's meaning
Joy to make a joy of the mountains which is where wild oregano first grew
Saffron is one of the most expensive spices by weight and that's because the part we use as a spice comes from the elongated
stigmas this part of the saffron flower which usually only yield a couple per flower they were
specially bred on the island of Crete during the Bronze Age to be like this from here had spread to become popular in foods and
medicines while rosemary sage and thyme
also come from this general region they're pretty regular spices I couldn't find anything cooler
Specific to say about them though and that wraps up all the major hotspots for spices
Next we have the spices that appeared all on their own
Allspice which has been described as sort of tasting like cinnamon nutmeg and cloves all together is also known by another name
Jamaican Pimenta so yeah no surprise
Got it start on the island of Jamaica in the Caribbean cayenne peppers are the classic red pepper most
people probably think about when thinking of spicy peppers these actually come from the French Guiana in South America
Specifically from the cayenne region funny how that worked out the name Cayenne originally comes from the native to p-word de Nia which
also,
just means pepper so cayenne pepper literally translates into pepper pepper
Garlic in my opinion is just the best and comes from Central Asia where Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan
And the Chinese Jian Shan mountains meet then, we have Jasmine
Which is actually a genus containing over 200 individual species
Being so numerous it's hard to track just exactly where they started but it's thought that southern China is where they came from
Sassafras is really the only spice I have on this list that comes from a more temperate wet climate
originating in the east coast of North America roughly from Ontario Canada
To Florida in the United States it's the root of this tree that was used to flavor root beer hence the name Ruth de Beer
and
Lastly, we have the spice melange which we all know is native to and only grows on the desert planet of Arrakis thanks for watching
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