Pimento

Pimenta dioica grows wild across the Jamaican hills and the island has long been the dominant world supplier of its dried berry, known in English as allspice because it tastes like a blend of clove, cinnamon and nutmeg while being none of them. The Spanish named it pimienta, mistaking it for pepper. In Jamaica the whole tree is used: berries in cooking and in liqueur, leaves in tea and in cooking pots, and the green wood as the fuel and smoke for jerk, which is the single thing that most distinguishes real jerk from an imitation. Groves are called pimento walks, and the berries are picked green and sun-dried until they rattle.

What you actually see

• The pimento walk - groves of allspice trees across the hill parishes.
• Sun drying - green berries dried on barbecues until they rattle.
• Pimento wood - the green wood that gives jerk its smoke.
• Pimento dram - the allspice liqueur made at Christmas.

When to go

The harvest runs roughly July to September, when the berries are picked and dried and the parish roads smell of it. Markets sell whole dried berries and ground allspice year-round. Pimento dram is a Christmas drink.

Honest expectations

Whole berries keep their flavour far better than ground allspice, which fades fast; buy whole from a market rather than pre-ground from a souvenir shop. Pimento wood is heavily marketed abroad and much of what is sold as such is not. Farm visits are informal and there is no established tourist route for it.

Nearby

St Ann and Manchester hold the main groves; markets everywhere sell the berries.