No pumpkin spice latte, cookie, candle, or seasonal can of Spam (yes, really) would be the same without one of its key flavors: nutmeg, a warm, woody spice grated from the seed of a tropical fruit. But back in the 1600s, nutmeg wasn’t so common that you could put it in everything from coffee to soap. In fact, nutmeg once grew only in one place in the entire world: the Banda Islands, a Pacific archipelago too tiny to even appear on regular maps. To get their precious nutmeg, European sailors had to brave a three-year journey filled with the possibility of shipwreck, storms, scurvy, dysentery, starvation, and death—so it's not surprising that the spice was so valuable that the crew weren't allowed to have pockets in their clothing, in case they smuggled some ashore for themselves! But how did one heroic Brit, Nathaniel Courthope, end up changing the course of nutmeg history—and, with it, the fate of not just pumpkin spice lattes, but also the city of New York? Listen now for the spicy, swashbuckling tale behind the season's favorite flavor.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Meet the Most Famous American You’ve Never Heard Of: His Legacy is Excellent French Fries and Monsanto
All You Can Eat: The True Story Behind America's Most Popular Seafood
The World Is Your Oyster: How Our Favorite Shellfish Could Save Coastlines Worldwide
Eat This, Not That: The Surprising Science of Personalized Nutrition (encore)
Bam! How Did Cajun Flavor Take Over the World?
Anything's Pastable (Guest Episode)
Can You Patent a Pizza?
Super Fry: The Fight for the Golden Frite (encore)
Dining at the (Other) Top of the World: Hunger, Fruitcake, and the Race to Reach the South Pole
Dining at the Top of the World: Arctic Adaptation, Abundance, and...Ice Cream
Cork Dork: Inside the Weird World of Wine Appreciation (encore)
It's Tea Time: Pirates, Polyphenols, and a Proper Cuppa (encore)
The Case of the Confusing Bitter Beverages: Vermouth, Amaro, Aperitivos, and Other Botanical Schnapps
Rice, Rice Baby
Ask Gastropod: White Chocolate, Jimmies, Chile vs. Mustard Burns, and Asparagus Pee
Beans, Beans, the Magical Fruit
Raised and Glazed: Don’t Doubt the Doughnut
We'd Like to Teach The World to Slurp: The Weird and Wonderful Story of Ramen's Rise to Glory
First Foods: Learning to Eat (encore)
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Stuff You Should Know
On Being with Krista Tippett
TED Radio Hour
Pollyanna
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Planet Money
The Dinner Party Download