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Family: Ambers

Cardamom: the aromatic, spicy seed of the ginger family

Cardamom is the spice made from the seeds of Elettaria cardamomum, a plant of the ginger family, with a spicy, aromatic, slightly metallic scent. Perfumers use its essential oil, absolute or CO2 extract.

Green cardamom pods scattered on a white background in soft light

Where does cardamom come from?

Cardamom comes from the seeds of plants in the genera Elettaria and Amomum, part of the ginger family, explains Wikipedia's article on cardamom. Green cardamom, Elettaria cardamomum, grows from India to Malaysia and is now cultivated mainly in India, Indonesia and Guatemala. Black cardamom, Amomum subulatum, from the eastern Himalayas, has a smokier aroma.

The seeds can hold up to 8% essential oil depending on storage conditions, with 1,8-cineole and alpha-terpinyl acetate among the main constituents reported. Only the small black seeds inside the thin, papery pod carry the aroma.

What does cardamom smell like?

Cardamom has a strong, aromatic, resinous fragrance. The IFRA Fragrance Ingredient Glossary describes cardamom seed oil, absolute and CO2 extract as spicy, aromatic and metallic. IFRA defines aromatic notes as complex and diffusive, the kind you recognise from culinary herbs and spices.

What does cardamom do in a perfume?

Cardamom brings a diffusive spice to compositions in the amber family. Its perfume history is long: Greeks and Romans used it in perfumes, and Plutarch lists it among the ingredients of kyphi, the Egyptian incense built on myrrh. In the kitchen it keeps company with cinnamon and clove in spice blends, and flavours coffee across the Middle East.

What else should you know about cardamom?

Often paired with

Coffee Cinnamon Myrrh

Further reading

Cardamom in the feed

priya.cardamomin Learning to Smell · Toronto ·

Challenge
Pale, shrivelled slices of dried ginger spread in a thick layer

Thread of the week: five spice jars, lids off

Thread of the week: the spice cupboard, smelled blind. Toronto has turned cold and the chai pot hasn't left the stove, so this one felt right. 1) Ask someone to pick five jars without showing you the labels. 2) Lids off, one at a time, a few centimetres from…

Cardamom Cinnamon Clove Black pepper

dex_in_brooklyn cumin got me. i said sweaty gym bag and my roommate nearly 86'd me from the kitchen. your going to laugh, i cook with it every night

11 comments

mo_from_leicesterin Giving Fragrance · Leicester ·

Memory
Bright red rose covered in dewdrops, with golden stamens at its centre

Rose water, cardamom and every family wedding

Our weddings all smell the same: rose water sprinkled at the door, cardamom in the tea, saffron in the rice, and the aunties' attar. My mum's birthday is next month and I've realised I've been smelling her taste my whole life. She wears rose, always rose. Do…

Rose Cardamom Saffron

rafa_azahar Hello friends, it is the same with orange blossom in Seville, you know your mother's taste before you know the word for it. Stay with the rose, I…

4 comments

ravi.teain Welcome to the Club · Brisbane ·

Introduction

Chai all day in Brisbane, hooked on cardamom

I fix computers for an office in Brisbane, with a pot of chai on the go from nine to five. Cardamom and ginger together is the smell I want to understand first. Spring here, the jacarandas are getting ready.

Cardamom Ginger Tea

priya.cardamom Welcome, Ravi! Cardamom chai is exactly how I got into all this, so we'll get along fine. Start with cardamom as a perfume note and tell us what you…

3 comments

priya.cardamomin Welcome to the Club · Toronto ·

Challenge

Your street, your kitchen, your pocket: three smells

Thread of the week: introduce yourself with three smells. No perfume names, just the smells. 1) one from your street 2) one from your kitchen 3) one from your coat pocket Mine: wet maple leaves on the sidewalk, cardamom pods splitting in a hot pan, and a…

Cardamom Cinnamon Cedarwood Jasmine

harriet.hay Bonfire smoke from the allotments, toast, and a conker, which smells of nothing at all and lives in my pocket anyway. Shout if you get stuck.

11 comments

priya.cardamomin Ambers, Spices & Gourmands · Toronto ·

Tip

Turn your spice drawer into a smelling kit

Small tip now baking season is here: your spice drawer is already a smelling kit, it just needs organizing. 1) Pull out cinnamon, clove, cardamom, ginger and nutmeg. 2) Line them up by which one you can still smell at arm's length. 3) Smell the quietest first…

Cinnamon Clove Cardamom Ginger

ravi.tea Did it with my chai tin. Clove won the arm's length test by a mile.

2 comments