At Terre Exotique, pink peppercorns became a kitchen staple, once used only to sprinkle on fish—until a pepper and berry tasting day introduced a simple trick we all adopted: roughly crush pink peppercorns before sprinkling them on a slice of bread topped with cream cheese and smoked salmon.

Pink peppercorns pair wonderfully with fish, but also with cheeses.

• Salmon carpaccio with pink peppercorns – find the full recipe on the Terre Exotique blog
• Duck breast with pink peppercorns – crush a tablespoon of pink peppercorns and place them on duck breast before eating.
• Honey & pink peppercorn grilled salmon – add 2 tbsp pink peppercorns to a marinade with honey, mustard, and olive oil.
• Eggs cocotte with foie gras & pink peppercorns – sprinkle 5–6 berries on egg and foie gras before baking for 8 minutes.
• Salmon bites with fresh goat cheese & pink peppercorns – add 2 tbsp crushed pink peppercorns to goat cheese, form balls, and coat with smoked salmon.
• Tuna rillettes with pink peppercorns – sprinkle 1 tbsp into flaked tuna, then add fresh cheese.
• Scallop carpaccio with pink peppercorns – add 2 tbsp crushed pink peppercorns to your marinade.

Warm, resinous notes emanate from pink peppercorns. At once sweet, peppery, and slightly aniseed, this mild berry is full of flavor on the palate.

Pink peppercorns are often mistakenly called “pink pepper,” but they do not belong to the genus Piper nigrum. Their scientific name is Schinus terebinthifolius. They belong to the Anacardiaceae family, which includes trees and shrubs such as sumac, mango, and cashew trees.

Also known as Bourbon pepper, pink peppercorns grow mainly on the island of Madagascar or on Réunion on a dioecious tree that can measure up to 10 meters high and grows very rapidly.

Only fully ripe berries are harvested, as they possess powerful aromas and are full of flavor. They are then sorted by hand by Malagasy women who possess this unique know-how.

Pink peppercorns are widely available, but few are of good quality. A quality pink peppercorn is shiny and perfectly round; it shouldn’t be shriveled. Its color should be a vibrant pink, a sign it was harvested when fully ripe.

At Terre Exotique, when they found their pink peppercorn from Madagascar, they simply fell under its spell.

Learn more about pink peppercorns

A bay from here and elsewhere

Pink peppercorns were first discovered in South America and then brought to various islands in the Indian Ocean, such as Réunion and Madagascar, in the early 19th century. It is on these islands that pink peppercorns now grow wild. Another name is Bourbon pepper, because in the 18th century, Réunion was called Île Bourbon.

Pink peppercorns are also available in Terre Exotique’s bespoke gift set dedicated to peppers from around the world.