Indian Spice & Foodstuff Exporters Association - Cooking Spices

Cardamom (or cardamon) refers to several plants of the genera Elettaria and Amomum in the ginger family Zingiberaceae. Both genera are native to India and Bhutan; they are recognised by their small seed pod, triangular in cross-section and spindle-shaped, with a thin papery outer shell and small black seeds. Elettaria pods are light green while Amomum pods are larger and dark brown. The word cardamom is derived from the Latin cardamomum, the latinisation of the Greek (kardamomon), in turn from (kardamon), cress + (amomon), a kind of an Indian spice plant. The earliest attested form of the word kardamon is the Mycenaean Greek ka-da-mi-ja, written in Linear B syllabic script. Elettaria (commonly called cardamom, green cardamom, or true cardamom) is distributed from India to Malaysia.

There were initially three natural varieties of green cardamom plants.

Malabar (Nadan/Native) As the name suggests, this is the native variety of Kerala. These plants have panicles which grow horizontally along the ground.Mysore As the name suggests, this is a native variety of Karnataka. These plants have panicles which grow vertically upwards.Vazhuka This is a naturally occurring hybrid between Malabar and Mysore varieties, and the panicles grow neither vertically nor horizontally, but in between.

Recently, a few planters isolated high yielding plants and started multiplying them on a large scale. The most popular high yielding variety is Njallani. Njallani, also known as rup-ree-t, is a unique high-yielding cardamom variety developed by an Indian farmer. The variety has high adaptability to different shade conditions and can also be grown in waterlogged areas.

Black cardamom, also known as hill cardamom, Bengal cardamom, greater cardamom, Indian cardamom, Nepal cardamom, or winged cardamom, brown cardamom, tho qu and tsao-ko) comes from either of two species in the family Zingiberaceae. Its seed pods have a strong camphor-like flavor, with a smoky character derived from the method of drying.

The pods are used as a spice, in a similar manner to the green Indian cardamom pods, but those have a different flavor. Unlike green cardamom, this spice is rarely used in sweet dishes. Its smoky flavor and aroma derive from traditional methods of drying over open flames. It is also called badhi elaichi in Hindi.

There are at least two distinct species of black cardamom: Amomum subulatum (also known as Nepal cardamom) and Amomum costatum or A. tsao-ko. The pods of A. subulatum, used primarily in the cuisines of India and certain regional cuisines of Pakistan, are the smaller of the two, while the larger pods of A. costatum are used in Chinese cuisine, particularly that of Sichuan; and Vietnamese cuisine.