The most quietly cheated spice in the market
- Clove oil (eugenol) is worth more than cloves
- So cloves are steam-distilled, the oil is sold to the flavour and pharma industry, and the exhausted cloves go back into the spice trade
- A spent clove looks almost the same and does close to nothing
- It’s extremely common, and it’s why many people think cloves are a mild spice
How to tell
- Press the head with a fingernail — a fresh clove leaves a faint oily mark and gives slightly
- Float them — a good clove sinks, or floats head-up. A spent one floats flat, because the oil that made it dense is gone.
- Ours sink.
How to use it
- Whole in pulao, biryani and garam masala — two or three is plenty
- One per cup in chai, with elaichi
- In kadha and achaar
- Use fewer than you think. Real cloves are strong.
















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