Cubeb Tincture & Alcohol-Free Extract

Cubeb (Piper cubeba), the tailed pepper or Java pepper, is a woody climbing vine of the pepper family, Piperaceae, native to Java, Sumatra, and Borneo in Indonesia, where it is grown on coffee plantations trained up living trees. It resembles black pepper in habit, with glossy, oval, leathery leaves and slender spikes of tiny flowers that ripen into round berries; the difference is that each dried fruit keeps a thin stalk 5 to 10 millimeters long, like a grey-brown peppercorn with a tail. The wrinkled fruits taste pungent and bitter with a strong camphor and allspice note, and flavor ras el hanout and some gins. We extract the dried fruit.