Allspice

The tree and its name

Allspice is made from the dried, unripe fruit of Pimenta dioica, an evergreen tree of the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Descriptions of the tree range from roughly 7 metres to 18 metres tall; one Singapore flora record gives up to 15 metres. The leaves are leathery, opposite and dotted with glands that release a scent like the spice when crushed. Small white, aromatic flowers open in branched clusters. The species name means two houses: individual trees are functionally male or female. The fruit is a small berry, 4 to 6 millimetres across, green when unripe and glossy purple to black when ripe.

The tree is native to the West Indies and Central America, and grows on rainforest hillsides there. It is also planted in warm regions elsewhere, partly as a fragrant ornamental.

English speakers had the name allspice by 1621, because the flavour seemed to combine cinnamon, nutmeg and clove. It is not a mixture of spices. Other names are Jamaica pepper, myrtle pepper, pimenta and, in Jamaica, pimento; outside Jamaica pimento usually means a red sweet pepper. In Mexico the spice is called pimienta gorda and in Poland ziele angielskie, English herb. Ecuadorian cooks use the name pimienta de dulce for it.

Harvest and flavour

The berries are picked green and sun-dried until they turn brown and smooth, looking like large peppercorns. Drying has to be careful so that the volatile oils survive. The main volatile oil named is eugenol, the compound also associated with clove. The taste is usually described as a blend of cinnamon, clove and nutmeg, with a peppery edge.

Jamaica is the leading source and is credited with more than half of the world supply; the Indian spices institute also records extensive cultivation there and a small scale of cultivation in India. The spice has naturalised in places such as Tonga and parts of Hawaii.

Use in food

The whole berry or the ground spice seasons food across the Caribbean and well beyond it. It is a key ingredient of Jamaican jerk seasoning, and wood and leaves of the tree are traditionally used to smoke jerk meat. Pimento dram, a Jamaican liqueur, steeps the ripe fruit in rum or another spirit.

In Mexico it appears in many dishes, in the Levant in stews, meat dishes and tomato sauce, and in Northern Europe and North America in sausages, curry powders and pickling brines. Swedish, Finnish and Norwegian kitchens use it in soups, stews, meatballs and cakes, and British brown sauce contains it. In North America it is one of the spices of pumpkin pie spice and Cincinnati-style chili.

The Indian spices institute lists bakery products, sauces, pickles, confectionery, beverages and meat preparations among its uses, and a Singapore flora record says the ground dried fruit is used commercially as a flavouring and as a curing agent in processed meats and bakery products. In a 2025 Jamaican Easter bun feature, Yanikie Tucker's recipes use ground allspice in both yeast and no-yeast versions.

Leaves and other uses

Fresh leaves resemble bay leaves and are used in a similar way. The fruit's essential oil goes into soaps and perfume, and a decoction of the fruit is reported in folk use against colds and stomach-ache. That report is a record of folk use, not evidence of effect.

What the sources do not say

No source consulted dates the first use of allspice in baking, or in a fermented or cured food, and none names the place where those uses began. Some widely repeated claims about its history, such as seed germination only after passing through birds, are not given a firm source here and are left out.