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What it is
Black sesame is the seed of Sesamum indicum, the same plant that produces the pale seed used across most of the world. The black form is a separate cultivar, not a roasted or treated version of the white one — the colour sits in the seed coat and stays after milling, which is why ground black sesame is grey rather than cream.
In Chinese herbal practice it occupied an unusual position: catalogued as a herb, and also eaten daily as a food, ground into pastes and sweet soups. That double status was rare.
"There was always a jar of these on the shelf at home. Nobody called it medicine. It was just what went into the porridge."
— Claire, founderTerroir
The ground it grows on
Zhumadian sits at 32.98° N on the southern Henan plain — 60 to 90 metres above sea level, sandy loam, and 950 mm of rain that arrives almost entirely in July and August.
Read note ↗Processing
From field to jar
Four steps, and no heat until the last one. Threshing, winnowing, washing, and a dry roast where the point to stop is judged entirely by sound.
Read note ↗Grading
How it was judged
Colour, fullness, bite, and a bowl of water. Four checks a buyer could run standing at a market stall, and all four still work.
Read note ↗What's in it
Contains sesamin, sesamolin, and a high proportion of oleic and linoleic acids.
In our range
Found in
Ground whole and used at the highest proportion of any single botanical in this bar. It is what gives the bar its dark grey colour and its faint toasted note.
This page describes a plant and its place in Chinese herbal tradition. It is not a description of what our products do, and nothing here is medical advice.
