Cloves from Toamasina: our spice from Madagascar's East coast

For us, cloves have a scent above all: the scent of Toamasina, on the East coast of Madagascar, where we lived for more than seven years. Our whole cloves come from this region.

Toamasina, “it seems salty”

Toamasina, still known to many by its French name Tamatave, is Madagascar's largest port. Its name is said to come from a little story that people love to tell there: arriving at the ocean's edge, King Radama I tasted the seawater and exclaimed “Toa masina!”, meaning “it seems salty!”. Toa means “like, it seems”, and masina, in this legend, “salty”. The word also means “sacred” in Malagasy, which gives the town's name a lovely double meaning.

With its port, Toamasina is the gateway to the whole East coast: much of the region's spices leave from here.

The clove tree, a tree of the East coast

The clove tree (Syzygium aromaticum) is not native to Madagascar: originally from the Moluccas in Indonesia, it reached the island at the end of the 18th century, via Mauritius and Réunion (Ranoarisoa, 2012). It found ideal conditions on the warm, humid East coast.

Today it grows around Toamasina and further north, in the Analanjirofo region, whose name means “where the clove forest is”. Madagascar is one of the world's largest clove producers.

A harvest by hand

A clove is a flower bud, picked just before the flower opens. The harvest takes place once a year, between September and January. It is done by hand, often in several passes on the same tree: the low branches from the ground, the higher ones with light ladders.

The same evening, the buds are separated from their small stems, called “griffes”. They are then spread out on mats and dried for a few days, until they turn brown and hard (Ranoarisoa, 2012). During the season, their scent seems to be everywhere.

Cloves around the world

Few spices have travelled so far. Across centuries and cultures, cloves have found many different uses:

• In China, under the Han dynasty, officials are said to have kept a clove in their mouth to sweeten their breath before addressing the emperor.
• In Europe, oranges have long been studded with cloves to scent the house at Christmas: the well-known “pomanders”.
• At the dentist's: eugenol, the molecule that gives cloves their unmistakable scent, has long been an ingredient of pastes used in dental practices. That's why many people say cloves “smell like the dentist”!
• In cooking, you find them in garam masala and chai in India, ras el hanout in North Africa, gingerbread and speculoos in Europe, and in many slow-cooked dishes.

These uses belong to tradition and history: our cloves are offered as a culinary spice.

How to use them in cooking?

• Whole, studded into an onion to flavour a stew, a broth or sauerkraut, then removed before serving.
• In hot drinks: mulled wine, chai, hot cider or spiced apple juice.
• In sweet dishes: gingerbread, compotes, poached pears.
• Freshly ground, in small amounts: their aroma is powerful.

Keep them whole, away from light and moisture: they will keep their scent much longer.

Recipe: spiced mulled wine

Serves 6: 1 bottle of red wine, 1 untreated orange, 4 cloves, 1 cinnamon stick, 1 star anise (optional), 80 g sugar.

Stud the cloves into one half of the orange and slice the other half. Gently heat everything with the wine and sugar for 15 to 20 minutes, without boiling. Strain and serve hot.

Sources

Ranoarisoa, K. M. (2012). Évolution historique et état des lieux de la filière girofle à Madagascar. Mémoire de fin d'études, École Supérieure des Sciences Agronomiques, Université d'Antananarivo.