Tellicherry Black Pepper

TGSEB — the bold berry, 550–570 g/l

Tellicherry is not a different plant from ordinary black pepper — it is the same Malabar vine, and what makes it Tellicherry is size selection. The berries are left to mature longer on the vine and then graded, so only the largest are taken: TGEB (Tellicherry Garbled Extra Bold) at 4.25 mm minimum, and TGSEB (Garbled Special Extra Bold) at 4.75 mm minimum, against roughly 3.5–4 mm for standard grades. Bulk density runs 550–570 g/l, moisture ≤ 12%, light berries ≤ 2%, extraneous matter ≤ 0.5%, with piperine typically 4–6% and volatile oil 2–4%. That longer maturation is what buys the aroma as well as the size: bigger, later-picked berries carry more volatile oil, which is the fragrance you notice when the mill turns.

Buy Tellicherry where the pepper is tasted rather than merely used: table and grinder retail at premium price points, fine dining and specialist food-service, gourmet and provenance-branded packs, and any application where the aroma at the point of grinding is part of the product. Buy Malabar Garbled MG1 instead for food processing, industrial seasoning, general kitchen use and anywhere the pepper is cooked into a dish — it is the same species with a smaller berry and materially cheaper, and in a cooked application the difference largely disappears. The one thing to hold suppliers to is that Tellicherry is a size grade with a defined minimum, not a marketing adjective: contract TGEB or TGSEB by name with the berry-size and bulk-density figures attached, because "Tellicherry" is applied loosely to pepper that would not pass the screen. CBIL supplies against SGS or Intertek certification of berry size, bulk density, moisture, light berries, volatile oil and extraneous matter, in 25 kg bags, container-load, on FOB, CFR and CIF terms.