The history of clove

Cloves are one of what the spice world calls "The Big Four" along with cinnamon, nutmeg, and pepper and share a history of greed, bloodshed and adventure. From the literature of China we know that those granted an audience with the emperor in the third century B.C. were required to take a clove from a dish held by a servant and chew it before reaching the royal room, so their breath would not offend the emperor. Popular with the Romans they were used more as a fragrance or perfume in the 1st century A.D.

Ferdinand Magellan, sailed from Lisbon Portugal in 1505, and discovered a route around Cape Horn at the tip of South America. He discovered the Spice Islands and claimed them for Portugal's King Emmanuel. Portugal controlled the Spice Islands and Cloves through the 1500s until they were defeated by the Dutch in 1605.

One of the Spice Islands was the small island of Amboina that was thirty miles long and fifteen miles wide. Some Scientists believe this is the first natural habitat of the clove.