Published: Week of June 24, 2025
When people first hear about Sichuan pepper, they often assume we’re in the business of chili oils or chili crisps or spicy sauces, because people just associate "pepper" or "Sichuan" with hot and spicy. That is one of our biggest marketing challenges.
Sichuan pepper is not a pepper, not is it hot either. It's actually a citrus fruit.
Unlike black peppercorns or fiery chili peppers, Sichuan pepper has no capsaicin and comes from the dried husk of a seed from a prickly ash tree, a close relative of citrus fruits. That means it has more in common with a grapefruit or a yuzu than with anything in your pepper grinder.
Crack open a husk and smell it—you might notice aromas of citrus peel, lemongrass, or pine. And instead of bringing heat, it brings something unique, and perhaps more exciting: a tingly, numbing sensation that lightly buzzes on your tongue.
So no, Sichuan pepper isn’t here to burn your mouth—it’s here to wake it up. It’s citrus, it’s spice, it’s sensation—and it’s the magic behind everything we do at 50Hertz.
