Nutmeg is a yellow coloured fruit vastly found in river deltas and banks, mostly in the tropical belt, native to the Moluccas Islands of Indonesia, the same place from where cloves trees were discovered during the early Colonial era.
Nutmeg is an evergreen tree and relatively requires a lot of water. The Tree produces yellow round fruits, most of them fall down when ripe. The fruit encapsules a single seed which is covered with a natural web called the Mace. The seed has a natural shell which is often broken before use.
They are rich with antioxidants, has anti inflammatory properties, antibacterial effects, catalyses digestive enzymes, a quick remedy for gastro related daily difficulties etc. To count of the qualities and properties of this wonder seed, you can write a lot about it.
The nutmeg seeds by BBS Spices Malabari are manually sorted, essentially they are pressed to see if they are still hard and there is any further unwanted discolouration which means that it could be a potential fungal attack on the process. The bad seeds are removed and are sent for grading based on size. The bigger ones are called Jumbo and the smaller ones named as tiger, pooja etc, this is essentially trader based Jargons based on the size of the seeds. Personally I would say, the smaller pods are better because, the concentration of the nutrients in the large and small pods is the same, the size does not really have the proportionate level of nutrient concentration. So in a pack, you will have more quality pods when the size is smaller and the less of collective nutrients in a pack of Jumbo. This principle can more or less be applied in the case of pepper as well.
Nutmeg seeds are prone to attacks of insects fungus etc even if they are good in shape when the seeds is taken out of the shell. They are vacuum sealed in bulk batches, that is how it is stored. At BBS Spices Malabari we have a very strong movement of these nutmeg seeds, and so the customer in most cases open up the Nutmeg packet in less than two months. After it is open, they are supposed to store it in an airtight container away from moisture and heat.
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