I had the recent honour of trying out GIMBER - a new product on the market made partly to challenge that old-dinosaur culture of heavy alcohol-drinking by offering this alcohol-free, organic drink concentrate instead. It promises a unique taste experience and a spicy kick, but can it possibly ...

Haritaki or Terminalia chebula is a tree that grows in the forests of India, south east Asia, Nepal, and south west China. Its dried, bitter super fruits have long been used in traditional Ayurvedic medicine in India as a powerful natural cure for a wide range of diseases. Ayurvedic medicine refers ...

I’m a big advocate of the Mediterranean diet simply because it’s both nutritious and delicious. Whilst olive oil and tomatoes may spring to mind, pomegranates are also integral to Mediterranean cooking, yet they receive little attention here in the UK. A type of berry, they consist of an inedible ...

Used widely in South America, Mexico and Caribbean dishes, Allspice (aka Jamaica pimenta, comes from the unripe, dried Pimenta dioicais fruit and) is seen as a wonderful, multi-purpose spice. It can be used in sweet and savoury dishes due to its pungent and fragrant smell. Allspice has also been ...

This historically popular seed, anise, also known as aniseed and anise seed, is the true anise, Pimpinella anisum, which is not to be confused with the unrelated star anise. The plant is native to Asia, particularly China (news has come to light about the Japanese sources being potentially toxic, ...

Believed to have originated from the tropical Sunda islands and the Moluccas of Indonesia, the purple, distinctively fragrant, mangosteen (or ‘Garcinia mangostana’) is not only rich in colour and flavour but abundant in potent health properties too. Sweet, sour and delicately aromatic, it is one of ...

Turmeric is a spice that comes from the ginger family and is native to tropical south Asia. One of the main constituents of this spice is curcumin which possesses numerous body and health benefits. You can buy it in a dried powder form at supermarkets, as supplements in health food stores, or fresh ...