The Journal.

Almost all black pepper comes from the same vine, Piper nigrum. Everything that makes one pepper taste of citrus and pine and another of dust happens after the vine: when the berry was picked, how slowly it dried, how long it sat in a warehouse.

Late-picked berries are larger and richer in aromatic oil. A Tellicherry grade is simply the largest berries of a late harvest — the same plant, given more time.

Then there are the peppers that are not pepper at all: Timut and Sichuan are citrus-scented berries from a different family entirely, and long pepper is a catkin rather than a berry.

Grind a peppercorn and most of its volatile aroma is gone within the hour. This is the entire argument for buying whole.

Ceylon cinnamon is peeled from young shoots into fragile, multi-layered quills. Cassia — including Saigon — is a thick single curl of hard bark.

Ceylon is floral, citrus-edged and delicate. Saigon cassia is hot, sweet and assertive.

Neither is better. They are for different jobs: cassia for buns and braises, Ceylon for anything where the spice should be perfume rather than punch.

Dry pan, medium heat, single layer, constant movement. You are waiting for aroma, not colour.

Toast whole, cool completely, then grind. Grinding warm spice steams away the oils you just developed.

Toast each spice separately when the sizes differ — cumin and coriander do not finish at the same moment.

Timut smells like grapefruit peel. Crush it over white fish or into chocolate; keep it away from long cooking.

Black lime is a whole lime boiled in brine and dried hollow. Pierce it, drop it in a stew, and remove before serving.

Long pepper is sweeter and slower than black pepper — grate it over braises and mulled drinks.

Ajwain smells of thyme and belongs in flatbread dough and fried fish batter. A pinch, not a spoonful.

Mace is the lace around the nutmeg seed: nutmeg's character, but floral and lighter. Steep a blade in a white sauce.

Crocus sativus flowers open before dawn and must be picked before the sun reaches them.

Each flower gives three red stigmas. A gram takes roughly 150 flowers, all separated by hand the same day.

Grade matters more than origin: all-red stigmas, no yellow style, deep aroma of hay and honey.