Image:花椒 Zanthoxylum.jpg

Photo of a pile of spice sold as SZECHWAN PEPPER in a Chinese shop in Melbourne, Australia. Only the husks contain the active ingredients causing the lemony flavour and tongue-numbing phenomenon, so we hand-separated the husks from the seeds and stems. The seeds are shiny and black; they are brittle like small, hard pieces of coal and feel like sand between the teeth. The stems are woody and thorny, with very little of the flavour of the husks.

Each peppercorn is 4–5 mm in diameter. That includes 3–4 mm for the inner seed, plus about half a millimetre either side for the husk. At a certain point in their development, the peppercorns open up, displaying the seed. This makes them about another millimetre wider.

Species: Z. piperitum / Z. simulans / Z. sancho

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• Sichuan pepper