Source · farm
Guatemala cardamom farm
Alta Verapaz, Guatemala, GT
Placeholder farm entry — German settlers brought cardamom from India to highland Guatemala in the 1920s, and the Verapaz region now produces more cardamom than India itself. Most of the crop is exported to the Middle East — Saudi Arabia is the largest single market — for coffee, qahwa, and slow-cook dishes.
The Latin American spice that the rest of the world thinks of as Indian. Cardamom is native to the Kerala Western Ghats, but a German agronomist named Oscar Majus Kloeffer transplanted it to Guatemala a century ago, and the volcanic-soil climate there turned out to favour the plant. The Indian and Guatemalan crops now alternate as world #1.
Products
- green cardamom
In season
- green cardamom · Sep – Dec
Used in · 4
- Gulab JamunDeep-fried *khoya* (reduced-milk) dumplings soaked in a cardamom-and-rosewater syrup — Indian and Pakistani celebration dessert, eaten warm.
- Khao SoiEgg noodles in a coconut-curry broth with braised beef or chicken, crispy fried noodles on top, pickled mustard greens on the side — northern Thailand's defining dish.
- Massaman CurryA Persian-Indian-Malay-Thai synthesis curry with beef, potatoes, peanuts, and a base of cinnamon, cardamom, and star anise — the slowest, mildest, most fragrant of the Thai curries.
- Rogan JoshKashmiri lamb braised in yogurt and Kashmiri chili for a deep red gravy, perfumed with fennel, ginger, and cardamom — the showpiece of *Wazwan*, Kashmir's banquet cuisine.