Cloud Forest Cardamom Seeds
Fragrant, crunchy seeds are bright and intensely aromatic.
- Regular price
- $11.99
- Regular price
- Sale price
- $11.99
- Unit price
- per
- Availability
-
- Sale price
- $11.99
Why Burlap & Barrel?
Single origin spices sourced directly from small farms
Over 10,000 5-star reviews
Guaranteed to wow you or we'll replace
Our cardamom seeds now come in our new grinder! The jar holds 20% more seeds, and you can adjust the cap for coarse or fine grinds.
Our Cloud Forest Cardamom is sweet and tart, reminiscent of summer fruits, fresh herbs and cut grass. It comes straight from a single-estate regenerative farm in the high-altitude cloud forests of Guatemala. The fruit turns yellow as it ripens on the vine and has a softer and sweeter flavor that makes it a perfect upgrade to standard green cardamom.
The fragrant, crunchy seeds have been removed from the pods, and they’re ready to dot pastries and jams and add depth to your favorite chicken recipe and give your coffee a Middle Eastern twist.
Highlights
Alta Verapaz, Guatemala
Decorticated cardamom seeds
Hot-air-dried
Ginger • Apricots • Jungle Flowers
Ingredients
Cardamom seeds, decorticated (Elettaria cardamomum)
Cooking tips
- Grind into rice, legume and grain-based dishes
- Use in a rub for chicken and lamb
- Add to fruit jams, marmalades and syrups
- Grind into coffee, tea or smoothies
SOURCING
Guatemala exports 80% of the world’s cardamom, but the spice is virtually unknown in local markets. It is grown exclusively for export, mostly on tiny plots by indigenous farmers in the country’s remote mountainous region.
Guatemala's cloud forests are ideal for growing cardamom, which thrives in temperate high-altitude environments with plenty of rainfall. The comparatively low temperatures in the mountains during the harvest season (November-January) ensure that the cardamom has very high levels of fragrant essential oils.
Our cardamom is grown on one of the only single-estate cardamom farms in Guatemala, which is also the only farm to manage the supply chain in its entirety, from cultivation to harvesting, drying and export. Cardamom is officially graded only by its size and green color; however, those factors don’t correlate to flavor. This cardamom has a yellow tinge since it's allowed to ripen fully, resulting in softer, fruitier, and overall more complex flavor.
Meet the Farmer
Our relationship with partner farmer Don Amilcar in Guatemala is one of our longest-standing and closest farmer partnerships. Maybe he was amused when Ethan first visited the farm in 2016 and hauled back a duffel back full of Don Amilcar's vine-ripened cardamom pods in 2016. We all hoped that would be the beginning of a long partnership... and it was.
In 2020, we brought in more than 20,000 pounds of spices from him, which, among other things, helped him build a new farmhouse. Don Amilcar planted his first cardamom vine when he was 9 years old. In the years since then, he's created the only vertically integrated cardamom operation in Guatemala with his own farm, his own drying facility and now, his own export operation run by his daughter Meyllin.
His farming operation is so impressive and produces cardamom so good that Saveur called him "the farmer shaking up the Guatemalan cardamom trade."
Want to check out his farm? You can watch a short video we made with him here.
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