Pemba Cloves, Ground

Our cloves are grown, harvested and ground by our partner farmers on the small island of Pemba, which is famous for its cloves. They're hand-picked at the last possible moment before flowering, ensuring the largest size and most mature flavor, and then dried in the tropical sun. They're bright pink when ripe, and they turn brown as they dry. They have a bright, sweet intensity with a rich warmth and a numbing menthol buzz. Add to braised meat or mulled wine, or use in all sorts baked goods, from cakes and pies to muffins and quick breads. Cloves are the dried buds of a large flowering tree that is grown in the Zanzibar islands in the Indian Ocean off the east coast of Tanzania. Zanzibar has some of the oldest clove trees in the world, and Zanzibari cloves have a significantly higher percentage of essential oils (15-18%) than cloves from other parts of the world. Their essential oil content is so high that they are used locally as a natural substitute for anesthesia. Zanzibar was at one