Coloured Peppercorns

[pt_tangles]

This is a question to anyone who happens by and knows more about cooking than me (Mattie and Desree, I am looking at you!):

Do colored peppercorns actually taste different than black ones or is it purely an aesthetic thing?

--Phae

Comments

[elf]

I've got a friend who's horribly allergic to black pepper, but can eat white pepper just fine. So they really are different plants, different chemicals... which strongly implies different flavors.

[desree42.livejournal.com]

Nope same plant just different stages in the ripening product. My guess would be that something happens to the peppercorns on the vine as they ripen that changes the chemistry of the peppercorns. It can also be a matter of preservatives or chemicals used during the drying of black pepper which is not present in white pepper because it is not used(they ripen on the vine and dry on the vine.)