Selim Bay

Selim pepper or "kili pepper" is the dried fruit of a plant in the Annonaceae family. It takes the form of a small, ebony-colored bean 3 to 5 cm long, containing small, hard black seeds. Found in tropical Africa from Cameroon to Benin, Senegal and Uganda, the Selim berry grows on a 20m-high Xylopia aethiopica tree along rivers in arid zones.

Selim pepper is packed with incredible flavors, concentrated in the husk and not in the seed as you might think. Selim pepper is not unlike cubeb pepper, except that it hardly stings at all.

Like many fake African peppers, which were often used as substitutes for real pepper, which was very expensive at the time, Selim's pepper was for a long time part of many culinary preparations in the 15th and 16th centuries.

In Senegal, it is part of Touba coffee (saff coffee) and is therefore used to flavor it.

Botany: Xylopia aethiopica (INPN)
Origin: Tropical Africa
Ingredients : 100% Selim berries from Cameroon
Storage: Several years, protected from light and humidity.
Product potency: 6 (Scoville)
Other names: graines de Selim, poivre de Selim, poivre de Guinée, poivre de Seghiou, piment noir, Kili poivre, Lélé poivre, poivre Africain, poivre du Sénégal, poivre Kani, ngani-koun, poivre kiki.