Sweet and mellow
Vanilla, liquorice, paprika and fennel: soft, round and gentle.
Sweet spices carry a natural sweetness and are used in desserts and drinks. Vanilla, cinnamon, cardamom, star anise, liquorice and fennel seed are among them.
What makes them sweet
Vanilla owes its character to vanillin, cinnamon to cinnamaldehyde, and anise and fennel to anethole. These compounds smell sweet, and the brain reads sweetness from the smell, so a vanilla scent can make a dish taste sweeter without more sugar.
How cooks use them
They flavour custards, ice creams, biscuits, milk puddings, sweet rice and drinks. In South Asia, cardamom perfumes kheer and tea, in the Middle East rose water and mastic flavour sweets, and in the Americas vanilla and cinnamon appear in chocolate and cakes.
Pairings
Sweet spices also work in savoury food, such as cinnamon in a meat stew or fennel in sausages. They pair well with citrus, nuts and dairy.
Sweet and mellow on EveryMasala
The spices written up so far, best known first.
🇮🇳 India and 4 moreFennel
The anise-scented seeds and crisp bulb of a Mediterranean perennial herbSeed · Anise and liquorice · Sweet and mellow
🇷🇺 Russia and 4 moreTarragon
A slender perennial herb with anise-scented leaves, prized in French and Middle Eastern cooking.Leaf · Anise and liquorice · Sweet and mellow
🇲🇽 MexicoPineapple sage
A Mexican shrub with leaves that smell of pineapple and flowers that feed hummingbirdsLeaf · Citrus and bright · Sweet and mellow
🇵🇸 Palestine and 4 moreGreek sage
A hairy Mediterranean shrub with pink flowers and edible fruit galls.Leaf · Herbal and green · Sweet and mellow
🇮🇱 IsraelNufar basil
A sweet basil variety bred in Israel to resist a deadly fungal wilt disease.Leaf · Sweet and mellow
🇮🇳 India and 5 moreFenugreekحلبة (hilba)
The cuboid seed of an annual legume, prized for its bitter warmth and maple aroma.Seed · Bitter · Warm and sweet-spiced
🇰🇷 South Korea and 5 moreKorean mint배초향
An anise-scented Asian mint leaf used in Korean stews and herbal traditionsLeaf · Anise and liquorice · Herbal and green
🇮🇩 Indonesia and 5 morePandan
The fragrant leaf of a sterile screwpine, used to scent rice and desserts across Asia.Leaf · Sweet and mellow · Floral and perfumed
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Pandan: Zuhairali, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Tarragon: KENPEI, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Pineapple sage: Eric Hunt, CC BY 2.5, source
- Greek sage: This file is a work by Ester Inbar ( user:ST or he:user:ST ). More of, Attribution, source
- Fenugreek: Yak, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Korean mint: Dalgial, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Fennel: Elekes Andor, CC BY 4.0, source