The Spice Trail (2011 - 2011)

Indonesia is the setting for the second episode and the spices covered are nutmeg and cloves. These two spices, grown on an archipelago of volcanic islands, drew European explorers in search of wealth but also led to massacres of local people and the decimation of their culture. Kate Humble meets the people who rebuilt their lives and communities around nutmeg and cloves and discovers how the battle for these spices led to the beginning of the British Empire in North America.

The final episode takes in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco and the plains of Spain for the world’s most expensive spice, saffron, before crossing the Atlantic to Mexico in search of vanilla. In the Atlas Mountains, she joins a local saffron farmer and his family to harvest their crop. In Spain, she joins a blind tasting to sort out the genuine from the fakes and meets the man who tests the DNA of saffron. In Papantla, the birthplace of vanilla, she meets the Totonac, the original guardians of the spice. She witnesses a fertility dance and comes face to face with the people determined to keep Mexican vanilla alive in the face of competition from other producers