Originally from the Malabar coast in south-west India, pepper is now mainly grown in Vietnam, India, Brazil, Indonesia and Malaysia. Pepper is one of the most widely consumed spices in the world. A member of the piperaceae family, pepper is a perennial tropical vine. The berries grow on vines wrapped around other trees and are picked at different stages of ripeness. White pepper comes from red pepper, harvested when fully ripe. This pepper is white because its pericarp (skin) is removed after it has been soaked in water for a few hours. Whether black, red or green, pepper comes from the piper nigrum plant. Sacred? This white pepper is carefully harvested and sorted by hand, bunch by bunch, soaked in water and dried in the sun. Many meticulous steps that make it sacred, with its white colour, a symbol of purity.