KOPABANA (10 Pods) Organic Alligator Pepper/dried Mbongo Pepper Spice Seed Pods/Non-GMO/Guinea Pepper -

These are great. In fact, they're so good I'm looking into growing the plant in my aquaponics system in the future so I have a constant fresh supply. I much prefer this to black pepper.

Very good quality product! Would buy again!

Great resealable package fresh product

First, this is a great spice, not quite like any other I've tasted. Unlike black pepper, I don't detect its own distinctive flavor, but mainly the pepper bite, which stays mainly on the tongue. When I bite into a single pepper corn, I get the pepper spiciness and a momentary bitter sensation.I presume West Africans have a simple method that works quickly and efficiently to remove all the detritus surrounding the pepper corns, and I wouldn't mind learning how to do it better than I managed. I opened the outer husk by cutting around it with a knife and removed the inner cluster of pepper corns, which splits into three sections lengthwise (much like a banana). I found that breaking each section into even smaller clusters and rubbing them vigorously between the palms of my hands seemed to work best. Mostly the little pepper corns fall out, and the more stubborn corns can be rubbed between palms or fingers. I admit I gave up on some and just threw them away. There was still some remaining light fiber, which I lightly blew away outside, leaving a fairly clean collection of pepper corns.The resulting pepper kernels are much smaller than black pepper corns but might work in a standard pepper grinder. I plan to use them whole to make broth for my ramen recipes and try grinding them to mix into ground meat and other dishes.I would give five stars, but I haven't decided yet if the amount of work involved is worth the result. I got a little over two tablespoons of pepper corns from two pods, which took a little more than a half hour.

These have such an interesting taste! They remind me of very large Cardamom pods. They look like very healthy well dried pepper pods. It's easy to crack them open and get to the little round, black seeds inside.They have a heat that builds over 2-5 seconds or so after you first taste one. A very harvest fall type taste initially - it reminds me of cardamom, cloves, citrus... But then the pepper note hits like a black pepper that's fruity and it builds to about a medium heat. This is hotter than black pepper, but it's not as hot as a jalapeno-I think they are probably close on the scale, but this is a heat that doesn't hit all at once, and it's enjoyable.The pods look lovely - I can tell that they must have been perfect specimens before they were picked and dried.They come in a plastic zip bag that's well sealed and well labeled. Mine were fresh with a two plus your date out.This is a product of Cameroon.

Quality product. Thought they would be spicier.

I'm the chief cook in our home and, because we have some pepper lovers in our family, I want to let other customers know: Even though this is a "pepper," the primary reason for including this spice in your cooking is not to produce "hot stuff." Often, that's why we're shopping for "peppers" on Amazon, these days. We want "hot stuff."This African spice does, indeed, add some heat to foods, but that's not the primary flavor. Alligator peppers have what the product page calls "punch," a savory addition that I think of as "pungent" and that in our experience also reminds us of the flavors of clove or cardamom. It's a wonderfully complex flavor.Then, how do you use these pods? Other reviewers have described how they "process" these pods for cooking.I've used this spice in a soup and a stew, so far, and I have two different devices I used in preparation. One is a granite mortar and pestle and the other is an electric spice grinder. I tried one for the soup, then the second for the stew. Honestly, I couldn't tell the difference in the two processing methods when the dishes were done. I mention this just to say: You will want to do some "processing" of the interior seeds and you probably can use whatever method you've got handy in your kitchen.I'm likely to reorder this spice, now that I have discovered it.

Alligator pepper (so-named because of the bumps on the pods surface) is a close relative of the somewhat more familiar grains of paradise. Being the ginger family, you get a more complex flavor from alligator pepper than from regular black pepper. There are several ways you can cook with it. The easiest is to throw the whole pod into dishes like soups, stews or braises. Longer cooking times draws out more of the flavors. You can grind the entire pod in an electric mill or crush it with a mortar and pestle. However, due to the texture, the latter will still leave very large pieces. An alternative is remove the seeds, which look very much like grains of paradise, and then to grind them in a pepper mill. This allows you to add the ground seeds in dishes with shorter cooking times like stir fries to get the flavors mixed in. However, it is a bit tedious to remove the seeds because they adhere to the paper-textured inside of the pods.However you use alligator peppers in your cooking, you will be rewarded by a delicious flavor enhancement of your dishes.