The history of spices is the history of humankind itself, with empires rising and falling based on the trade of exotic spices from distant lands, their intoxicating allure changing and shaping the very foundations of our society. Christopher Columbus set sail for the Indies (following the unorthodox notion of getting there faster by heading in exactly the wrong direction), he was searching for pepper. Not gold or jewels, but pepper and other spices. He never found the passage to the Indies he was hoping for, and he never found the pepper he was searching for, but the world was changed forever because of our passion for strange new flavours from faraway places READ MORE......