Spices

How the world tastes

With every meal, we come into contact with spices that enter our kitchen from remote parts of the world. This starts with pepper. However, hardly anyone knows what spice plants look like, where they come from, where pepper grows or from which parts of the plant spices are made. The eventful history of spices and the spice trade is also hardly known. Wars were fought and peoples subjugated because of them.

The students immerse themselves in the world of spices and discover it with all their senses. The precursor of our cocoa - the fiery Aztec drink - is prepared by the students themselves and, of course, tasted. In the tropical greenhouse, they encounter some of the best-known spice plants. On an adventurous journey across the Silk Road, students engage playfully with the history of spices and learn about their value.

Competencies:

The students ...

•     practice their perception through the senses of smell, taste and touch
•     describe, sketch, and classify different parts of plants that are used as spices
•     cook an original cocoa drink, which they taste afterwards
•     playfully learn about the history of spices and their value

Competencies in the sense of ESD

The students ...

•     are sensitized for fair trade (fair payment of the farmers in the countries of origin of the spices)
•     learn about the mostly tropical origin of spices and the environmental impacts associated with long transport routes and cultivation methods, e.g. clearing of tropical rainforests for cocoa plantations, use of chemical pesticides
•     Awareness raising regarding ecosystem services and biodiversity is initiated and promoted (e.g. health-promoting effects of spices)