Nutmeg

Nutmeg is primarily grown in Indonesia and Grenada. It harvested from evergreen trees. After the nut of the fruit is harvested, the outer arils are removed from the kernel and the arils are dried and ground. The arils become mace while the dried kernels turn into the spice nutmeg. 

Here at Olam, we source dried kernels from local processors in Indonesia and bring them to our facility near Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam for final processing. Because of nutmeg’s relatively high volatile oil (VO) content, this grinding takes place in a cryomill. This cryomill keeps the temperature of the mill at a relatively low temperature to preserve the VO of the spice. 

In 2014 Olam’s Vietnam business saw the opportunity to expand into new products such as nutmeg by leveraging our superior sourcing ability in the Asia region. With the supply chain already in place we built a state of the art grinding facility to meet the markets demands.

So, when can I use ground nutmeg? Ground nutmeg has many applications, including: 

• Used in desserts, such as apple or pumpkin pie
• Sprinkled over beverages, such as eggnog, chai or foamy coffee drinks
• Paired with cheese dishes to highlight the contrasting flavors
• Included in spice blends such as curry or Morrocan 7 seven spice 

Nutmeg comes from Myristica fragrans, also known as the nutmeg tree. It originates from Banda, the largest of the Molucca spice islands of Indonesia. It is believed that nutmeg was discovered as early as the 1st century A.D. 

However, it wasn't until the 1600’s, when nutmeg became a coveted spice, due to the low availability, the Dutch began a war in an attempt to control the world’s nutmeg production.