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Caffeine, spice and the world's flavours

The trees behind the spice rack and the daily cup — from clove and cinnamon to the caffeine hollies shared from a gourd.

Trees
  1. 01
    Nutmeg fruit split open to reveal the seed wrapped in bright red mace
    Trees№ 0894 min

    Clove, Nutmeg, and Allspice: The Spice Trees Nations Killed For

    Tropical evergreens whose dried buds, seeds, and berries were once worth wars and massacres — the two spices from one nutmeg tree, the clove flower never allowed to open, and the New World's answer to them all.

  2. 02
    Cinnamon quills of rolled dried bark beside cinnamon tree foliage
    Trees№ 0854 min

    Cinnamon and Camphor: The Aromatic Bark and the Medicinal Wood

    Laurel-family trees whose fragrance is worth harvesting — the peeled inner bark that spiced the ancient trade routes, the true cinnamon and its cassia impostor, and the camphor that heals and invades.

  3. 03
    Dried star anise pods showing the eight-pointed star shape
    Trees№ 4614 min

    Star Anise: The Spice That Made the Flu Drug

    A small Chinese tree whose star-shaped seed pods are a fundamental spice of Asian cooking — and, for years, the world's main source of the raw material for the antiviral drug Tamiflu, with a toxic look-alike to beware.

  4. 04
    Reddish-brown split husks of dried Sichuan pepper
    Trees№ 4303 min

    Sichuan Pepper: The Spice That Makes Your Lips Buzz

    A thorny citrus-family tree whose dried berry husks are not hot but tingling — producing the electric, lip-numbing buzz at the heart of Sichuan cooking, a genuine and measurable effect on the nerves.

  5. 05
    Split kola pods showing the pink and white kola nuts inside
    Trees№ 2534 min

    Kola Nut: The Caffeine Seed Behind Cola and a Culture of Welcome

    A bitter West African seed, chewed for its stimulant kick and shared as the deepest gesture of hospitality — and the original flavouring that gave cola drinks their name.

  6. 06
    Yerba maté prepared in a traditional gourd with a metal bombilla straw
    Trees№ 5343 min

    Yerba Maté: The Holly Tree Shared From a Gourd

    A South American holly whose caffeine-rich leaves make the continent's most social drink — brewed in a gourd, sipped through a metal straw, and passed hand to hand as a ritual of belonging.

  7. 07
    Yaupon holly branch with small glossy leaves and bright red berries
    Trees№ 5313 min

    Yaupon and Guayusa: The Caffeine Hollies of the Americas

    Two American hollies brewed for their caffeine — one the source of the ceremonial 'black drink' of the southeastern tribes, saddled with a libellous scientific name, and North America's only native caffeine plant.

  8. 08
    Clusters of orange areca (betel) nuts on a slender areca palm
    Trees№ 0413 min

    Betel Nut: The Areca Palm Chewed by Half a Billion People

    The slender areca palm whose seed — the 'betel nut' — is chewed by hundreds of millions across Asia and the Pacific for its mild stimulant buzz, staining the world red, and carrying a serious cancer risk.

  9. 09
    Coffee bushes and young cacao growing beneath a canopy of taller shade trees
    Trees№ 0606 min

    Cacao and Coffee: The Understorey Cash Crops

    Two shade-adapted crops that built agroforestry economies — why sun-grown systems yield more and cost more, and what shade actually buys.

  10. 10
    Rows of pruned tea bushes forming a continuous plucking table on a hillside
    Trees№ 4865 min

    Tea: One Plant, Every Type, Kept as a Waist-High Bush

    Green, black, oolong and white are the same leaf processed differently — plus why the tea plant is a tree pruned into a plucking table.

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