Clove buds Absolute
Origin: Madagascar

• Details and product description

  Introduction:

  The clove tree has dense evergreen foliage. It grows 15-20 meters in height and has a smooth whitish-gray trunk. The tree’s opposite branching gives it a pyramidal shape. The evergreen leaves are green-coloured, glossy, opposing and aromatic. The leaves are lanceolate and in terminal clusters and have four thick sepals and four petals that cover the flower bud. This is what is called the “clove” before blossoming. The fruits or mother cloves “anthophylli” are long berries as large as plums. Cloves are floral buds, picked before blooming and dried in the sun.

  History:

  The clove tree was known by the Chinese long before the Christian era. It was well-known and in used for a long time in China (266 BC.), where courtiers used to chew some cloves to freshen their breath before speaking to their Emperor. In Egypt, several mummies have been found adorned with a clove necklaces.As early as the Second century, clove reached Alexandria with the caravans from the East. This spice was unknown to the Greeks and the Romans. Clove was introduced into Europe in the Vth century by Arabs, and it remained the most expensive spice for a long time. In France, it’s traces date back to the Merovingian dynasty, but it was not until the 15th century that it became a trade commodity. The Portuguese settled in the “Spice Islands” (Sri Lanka) for commercial purposes. In the 16th century, the Dutch conquered the islands and extended the cultivation of clove trees to the Maluku Islands. At the beginning of the XVII th century, the Dutch obtained a monopoly in the clove trade. In 1759, the Quartermaster General of Reunion, Pierre Poivre, brought back enough seedlings to develop cultivation on the French island from a mission in Malaysia. Nowadays, the clove tree is widely cultivated in tropical countries, and the island of Pemba now makes up 70-80% of world production. The name derives from the Greek "phyllos" or leaf and "Karuo" or nut and from Prince Eugene de Savoie, fervent botanist from the XVIIth century. The English name "clove" derives from the French name "clou", which means nail, the shape of the spice.

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