Pepper
Dry, sharp, tickly spice with a woody warmth, like freshly ground peppercorns.
You may know it from Freshly ground black pepper on food
Where it comes from
Usually distilled from peppercorns or recreated with aroma chemicals.
Worth knowing
Pepper can mean black, pink, white, or Sichuan pepper styles.
About pepper
The word pepper on an ingredient list can point to two unrelated plants. One is the vine Piper nigrum, which gives black pepper. The other is a small group of trees in the cashew family, chiefly Schinus molle and Schinus terebinthifolia, whose pink-red berries are sold as pink pepper. One French spice merchant files those berries under "faux poivres" or "poivres cousins", because in France they cannot legally be sold as "poivre".
Black pepper oil is made by steam distillation of dried, nearly ripe berries. Pink berries are hand-picked when ripe and dried before processing, and sources differ on the method: ScenTree describes hydrodistillation, while one fragrance house calls steam distillation the main technique. For both, a CO2 extract exists as a separate material from the distilled oil.
Suppliers credit black pepper's beta-caryophyllene with a woody, resinous, slightly clove-like body, and the oil settles into dry warmth. ScenTree lists pink pepper's odour as spicy, cool spices, terpenic and zesty, and its oil leads with alpha-pinene and myrcene. One boutique perfumer hears a sharp, metallic opening with none of black pepper's warmth, while a supplier describes its pink CO2 extract as citrus first, then rosy-floral and green facets.
In a formula, black pepper is classed as a top-to-heart note that adds dryness to woods, ambers and leathers. Pink pepper is used as a top-note lifter, and one perfume house pairs it with citrus, rose, iris and woody-amber bases. Pink pepper berries may also trigger allergic reactions in people with a tree nut allergy.
Accords it shows up in
How many of the fragrances listing Pepper in our catalogue also carry each accord. We counted this ourselves.
Often paired with
The notes that appear next to Pepper most often in our catalogue.
Well-known fragrances with Pepper
Fragrances that list it in their notes, most-rated first.
Houses that use it most
Ranked by how many of their well-known fragrances list Pepper.