Spice Syrup 3 fl. oz.

Recommend to Friend!

Spice Syrup 3 fl. oz.

Ingredients: Maple syrup is a natural sweetener with many health benefits. According to research cited by the George Mateljan Foundation, maple syrup contains important and hard-to-get dietary elements manganese and zinc. Clove bud oil is a light yellow liquid with a spicy, sweet, warm odor. It is widely used as an antiseptic for tooth care, an expectorant for bad breath, a flavoring for cuisines, and in aromatherapy, for relieving stress. Coriander oil has a delightful fragrance: spicy, aromatic and pleasantly sweet. It blends well with sage, bergamot, cinnamon, jasmine and frankincense. Peppermint oil is an essential oil, meaning it contains the essence of peppermint leaves. Refreshing, cooling, uplifting and restoring, peppermint has a variety of therapeutic uses. Nutmeg oil, sharp, spicy, musky, is extracted by steam distillation from the dried seeds of Myristica fragrans. White Thyme oil is steam distilled from Spanish Thyme leaves. As an essential oil it imparts a herbaceous, subtly medicinal aroma. Fennel oil has an herby, slightly spicy smell, much like aniseed. It is clear in viscosity.

Appearance

The sugar maple is a deciduous, slow growing tree with a round canopy and large dark green summer leaves that turn yellow to orange in autumn. The clove tree is an evergreen with large oval leaves and crimson flowers in groups of terminal clusters. The pale flower buds gradually become green, then turn bright red, at which time they are ready for collecting. Coriander, also called Cilantro, is an aromatic annual Eurasian herb in the parsley family with parsley-like leaves and clusters of tiny white to pinkish flowers. Peppermint plants have square stems, and can grow up to two feet tall. They bloom from July through August, sprouting tiny purple flowers in whorls and terminal spikes. Toothed, fragrant leaves grow opposite the flowers. The nutmeg tree is a large evergreen native to the Moluccas (the Spice Islands) and is now cultivated in the West Indies. The tree produces two spices, mace and nutmeg. Mace is the lacy covering on the seed kernel inside the fruit, and nutmeg is the kernel itself. Thyme is a hardy perennial native to the Mediterranean. Most varieties grow to only six to twelve inches in height. The leaves are dark gray-green in color. Pale pink flowers bloom at the tips of the stems in summer. Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) is a plant that yields a seed-like fruit, while the leafy growth used as an herb. Foeniculum vulgare, known as Florence fennel, finocchio, or sweet anise, has a bulb with celery-like stalks, which are eaten as a vegetable.

History

In the early days maple sap was boiled down and made into maple sugar, instead of the more common maple syrup that we see today. There was no easy way to store syrup as a liquid, but hardened, dry maple sugar was easily stored for use later in the year.

Over the next hundred years or so, maple sugar producing went through some changes. Metal buckets replaced the wooden ones and metal tanks became available for sap storage instead of hollowed out logs or wooden barrels. Other improvements included the building of shelters for boiling the sap, which became known as "sugarhouses."

Shortly before 1890 the import tax on white cane sugar was removed, and cane sugar soon outsold maple sugar. This led to a surge in popularity of maple syrup, and soon the New England "sugarmakers" were making maple syrup instead of maple sugar. Now, over a century later, we still seek that special flavor of pure maple syrup that the original settlers of Massachusetts learned about from the Native Americans.

The clove tree (Syzgium aromaticum) is indigenous to the Moluccas. It was probably imported from the Spice Islands into China more than 2000 years ago. From the 8th century on, cloves became increasingly popular in Europe, and along with nutmeg, the importation of this coveted spice helped the enterprising Venetians become extraordinarily wealthy. The lure of cloves and nutmeg attracted the Portuguese to the Spice Islands in 1514. The Portuguese were followed by the Dutch in 1605, and the Dutch retained control over the trade until late in the 18th century, at which time the exotic spices of the Moluccas were starting to be grown elsewhere in the world. Currently, clove trees are grown in such places as Zanzibar, Madagascar, Mauritius and Indonesia.

Coriander's history can be traced back for thousands of years. It was grown in Persia 3,000 years ago and used to fragrance the hanging gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Coriander is also one of the ingredients mentioned in the Eber’s Papyrus, the oldest known complete medical textbook in existence. As civilization spread, so did the popularity and uses of coriander. It has been and is widely used as a condiment and as an ingredient in medicines. It is an essential ingredient in tonics and cough medicines in India. The leaves of the plant, known as cilantro, are a popular flavoring in many Indian, Latin American and Southeast Asian dishes.

There are more than 25 true species of mint naturalized throughout Europe and North America that were well known to ancient cooks and natural practitioners. But in terms of herbal history, peppermint (Mentha x. Piperita) is a fairly new addition to a growing list of botanicals. Peppermint, a natural hybrid cross between Mentha aquatica (water mint) and Mentha spicata (spearmint), was first described in 1696 by English botanist John Ray, who discovered the pepper-flavored mint growing in a field. The herb soon became popular with natural healers, and, of course, as a flavoring agent. Since its inclusion in the prestigious London Pharmacopoeia in 1721, this aromatic herb has been extensively cultivated for its essential oil, with the U.S. providing nearly 75 percent of the world's fresh supply.

The Arabs were the exclusive importers of nutmeg to Europe up until 1512, when Vasco da Gama reached the Moloccas and claimed the islands for Portugal. To preserve their new monopoly, the Portuguese (and from 1602, the Dutch) restricted the trees to the islands of Banda and Amboina. Special cautions were needed because anyone possessing the spice could easily propagate it since the part of the fruit used as a spice is also the seed. As a preventative measure, the Dutch bathed the seeds in lime, thus rendering them infertile. This plan was thwarted however, by fruit pigeons that carried the seeds to other islands before they could receive their lime coating. Despite these precautions, the French, led by horticulturist Pierre Poivre, smuggled nutmeg seeds out of the Moluccas and started a plantation on the island of Mauritius, off the east coast of Africa, near Madagascar. In 1796 the British took over the Moloccas and spread nutmeg cultivation to other East Indian islands and then to the Caribbean. Nutmeg was so successful in Grenada that this tiny nation now calls itself the Nutmeg Island. In the Western world during medieval times Nutmeg was lauded for possessing magical powers. Tucking a nutmeg into the left armpit before attending a social event was believed to attract admirers. Nutmegs were often used as amulets to protect against a wide variety of dangers and evils, from boils to rheumatism to broken bones and other misfortunes. Peasants carried nutmegs everywhere and many wore little nutmeg graters made of silver, ivory or wood, often with a compartment for the nuts.

Thyme has been used since ancient times as a flavoring agent and as a fumigant. Ancient Egyptians used thyme in embalming. The name thyme is derived from thymos, the Greek word for courage. The ancient Greeks used the herb in their baths and burned it as incense in their temples, believing that thyme could impart courage and vigor. It is thought that the spread of thyme throughout Europe was due to the Romans, who they used it to purify their rooms. In the European Middle Ages, the herb was placed beneath pillows to aid sleep and ward off nightmares. During this period, women would also often give knights gifts that included thyme leaves as thyme was believed to bring courage a warrior. Finally, thyme became widely known in the 17th century as an agent for easing the discomfort of lung and digestive complaints.

A native to the Mediterranean, Fennel is an ancient and common plant known to the ancient Greeks and spread throughout Europe by Imperial Rome. It is also grown in India, the Orient, Australia, South America and has become naturalized in the US. It has been called the “meeting’ seed” by the Puritans who would chew it during their long church services. The name derives from the Latin foeniculum, meaning “little hay.