A Short History of pepper
According to written records, pepper was first introduced to Cambodia in the 13th century by a Chinese explorer, marking the start of generations of cultivating the world’s finest peppercorns in the quartz-rich soil of this region.
Mission Story
Pepper has become a commodity - produced at scale, stored for years and often treated as an afterthought. Mill was founded on the belief that an ingredient used this often deserves more care.
In 2017, a search through Southeast Asia for pepper with greater nuance and flavor led to Kampot, Cambodia. The pepper grown there was immediately different: intense, expressive and dramatically changed by when the fruit was harvested and how it was processed.
Kampot Pepper comes from a single Piper nigrum vine. Young berries can be enjoyed green and vegetal. As they mature, differences in harvest and processing produce black, red and white pepper - four distinctly different expressions of the same plant.
Kampot Region
Kampot Pepper is protected by geographical indication, with defined standards for where and how it may be cultivated, harvested and processed. Traditional organic farming practices are fundamental to those standards, including natural fertilizers and non-chemical approaches to weed and pest management.
Mill works directly with our farm partner in Kampot that cultivates and harvests its pepper by hand. Our pepper is certified organic under the USDA National Organic Program by Ecocert, with traceability extending back to where it was grown.
Located on the southern coast of Cambodia, Kampot is the only pepper-producing region to be given Protected Geographic Indication (PGI) status by the WTO, UN and others–the same designation that protects Champagne, Darjeeling and Parmigiano–in recognition of the exceptional pepper it produces. No other peppercorn can claim this.
Our partner farm lies just outside of Kep, where they cultivate this prized crop with care. Their crops are farmed according to traditional organic practices and fertilized with naturally-occurring horse manure and bat guano.
Harvesting season occurs between February and May each year, when the peppercorns are then picked by hand and dried out in the sun.
The pepper grown here is also fair-trade and farmers here are paid a living wage (10x the prevailing agricultural wage). Our partner farm also manages a free school to provide an education to rural children in surrounding areas.