Steenbergs Cloves

Steenbergs Organic Cloves are the classic, nail-like spices that originate from the Spice Islands in eastern Indonesia and now come from many places, including India, Indonesia or Sri Lanka.  Native to Asia, organic cloves are the dried small reddish-brown flower bud of the clove tree, which are picked before the flowers actually open and then dried in the sun.  Cloves are reddish brown to brown in colour and are 10-15mm in length (? - ½ inches). They are long and nail shaped, tapered at one end and with a flatter head at the other end, which should contain a friable little ball held between the fingers, hence its name in German being nelke.  The flavour is intensely pungent with ideas like medicinal, warming, sweet and numbing coming to mind, while the aroma is also really strong, being pungent, aromatic, camphorous and peppery.

 

Organic *