A Brief History of Spices The story of spices is a colorful one, and has been told many times It turned out that tropical Asia was especially rich in spice plants To the peoples of the Mediterranean and Europe, who depended on Arab traders for both the spices and information about them, this meant that cinnamon and pepper and ginger were rare treasures from fabled lands The Romans knew a number of Eastern spices but in cooking used mainly pepper A thousand years later, Arab cultural influence introduced other spices to wealthy medieval tables throughout Europe, and demand for them grew with the middle classes Medieval sauces often call for a half-dozen spices, usually beginning with cinnamon, ginger, and grains of paradise The Turkish control of supply routes and prices impelled Portugal and Spain to search for a new sea route to Asia; Columbus reached the Americas, the home of chillis and vanilla, in 1492, and Vasco da Gama reached India in 1498 The Portuguese and then the Spanish controlled the Spice Islands and the trade in nutmeg and cloves until around 1600, when the Dutch embarked on two centuries of brutally efficient control As spices were planted in other tropical countries and became cheaper and more commonly available, they slowly faded from their former prominence in European dishes, persisting mainly in sweets But at the end of the 20th century, the consumption of herbs and spices rose sharply in the West In the United States it tripled between 1965 and 2000 (to about 4 grams per day per person), thanks to a growing appreciation of Asian and Latin American foods, and especially the spiciness of “hot” chillis The Nature of Flavor ...Asia; Columbus reached the Americas, the home of chillis and vanilla, in 1492, and Vasco da Gama reached India in 1498 The Portuguese and then the Spanish controlled the Spice Islands and the trade in nutmeg and. .. But at the end of the 20th century, the consumption of herbs and spices rose sharply in the West In the United States it tripled between 1965 and 2000 (to about 4 grams per day per person), thanks... when the Dutch embarked on two centuries of brutally efficient control As spices were planted in other tropical countries and became cheaper and more commonly available, they slowly faded from their former prominence in European