Épices Rœllinger Pepper<Kampot Black Pepper

Cambodian pepper has been renowned since the time of the Khmer Empire. It can be found mentioned in ancient and medieval texts including the travel journals of Chinese explorer Zhou Daguan in the 13th century.
Cambodian pepper’s prestige captured the imagination and the palates of explorers right up to the 19th century, when the Dutch army arrived to fight the Aceh War in Indonesia. The Sultan of Aceh ordered all pepper plants burned to prevent to prevent the Dutch from plundering the gustative treasure. At the time, some of the pepper production was moved to the Kampot region in Cambodia.
By the end of the 19th century, French colonists had expanded the pepper trade and increased production to nearly 8,000 tons per year.
The quality of the pepper produced in Kampot continued to improve over the years until the Khmer Rouge came into power in 1975 and replaced pepper production with a rice monoculture.
For the next 30 years, pepper production all but disappeared. It wasn’t until the end of the 20th century that growers on small family farms began to cultivate Kampot pepper once more.