The Spice Trail
| The Spice Trail | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Documentary |
| Directed by | Paul Sapin |
| Presented by | Kate Humble |
| Composer(s) | Tim Cooke |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of episodes | 3 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Andrew Snowball |
| Producer(s) | Paul Sapin |
| Running time | 60 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Lion Television |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC Two |
| Original release | 17 February – 3 March 2011 |
| External links | |
| Website | |
The Spice Trail is a British television documentary series first broadcast on BBC Two in 2011 looking at the discovery and history of spices. Presented by Kate Humble, she travels around the world to see how spices are made and investigates their history. She also tells stories and interviews the people from the areas of their origin. The series looks at how local economies are built upon the income from the spices and the threats to these economies such as disease, globalisation and fakes.
In the first half we visit India to look at Pepper and find out that Black pepper corns are traditionally sun dried. We are told that White pepper is soaked and de-husked to make it milder. Green pepper is mentioned but not explained and Red is not mentioned at all. We see how the corns are removed by being trodden on and massaged by bare feet. We see the devastation a Fungal disease has brought to what was once the primary area of production. We also see the silent and secret negotiation language of the buyers and sellers who use their hands under a cloth to negotiate without the need for a spoken language (a kind of Tactile signing).
In the second half we see small Cinnamon trees being cut in Sri Lanka. The outer Bark is scraped by hand and the inner bark is then carefully removed with a knife. The best parts are used to create an outer sheaf and the other parts are placed within. These outer sheaves are joined to each other and overlap slightly to create a standard length stick or rod known as a quill. The sticks are then rolled daily as they dry and are tied into bundles for trading and transport.
In this programme we visit the Spice Islands in Indonesia, the original home of these two spices. In the first half we look at nutmeg and discover it has many layers. There is the outer fruit which is used for jam. When ripe the fruit opens revealing a red nut and this is the best time to pick it we are told. However in the program we see examples of fruit being cut open when it has been picked early. We see the outer red skin of the nut being removed and dried to create mace. The inner skin or black shell of the nut is then removed and discarded and what is left is the hard brown "nut" we call nutmeg. We also find out that Almond trees are important for shade and a species of Dove is responsible for planting most of the almonds trees and nutmeg trees.
...
Wikipedia