The 3-4 mm berry has a rough reddish brown shell that is split open and a black seed inside. The black seed is bitter and can be discarded. The red shell can be added whole to stewed dishes or ground to a powder and used a seasoning. The spice has a unique aroma and flavor that is not as pungent as black pepper and has slight lemony overtones.
Szechuan peppercorns are one of the five spices in Chinese five-spice powder.
Called sansho in Japan, they are used in the spice mixture shichimi togarashi, or Japanese seven-spice seasoning. This information is gathered from a wide variety of electronic, print and other sources. We have included reference information on each page to denote the original source of such information. More importantly, many of the plants in our collections have reputed medicinal properties according to some sources. We will only reproduce information we believe to be correct, but we make no claims as to the validity of this information.