Madagascar Ginger

Madagascar ginger

Quick answer: Madagascar ginger is an aromatic rhizome, dried and then ground, with a warm, lemony, gently pungent flavour. Grown in the highlands, it keeps a freshness that is lost in industrially dehydrated ginger.

Madagascar ginger is an everyday spice: it wakes up curries, scents hot drinks, lifts marinades, and works as well in sweet dishes as in savoury.

Where Madagascar ginger comes from

Ginger (Zingiber officinale) grows in the temperate, humid zones of the Malagasy highlands. The rhizome is harvested at 8 to 10 months, cleaned, sliced and then slowly dried before being ground to a fine powder. This artisan method preserves the essential oils and the aromatic intensity that belong to the terroir.

Aromatic profile: lemony, warm, fresh

Malagasy ginger offers bright lemony notes, an agreeable warmth and a bracing bite. Set beside the often rougher Asian gingers, its signature is more fragrant than fiery, which makes it a versatile spice and an easy one to dose.

How to use ginger in the kitchen

Ginger can be used dried or fresh, at the beginning or at the end of cooking depending on the effect you want. At the start it spreads its warmth; as a finish it keeps its lemony freshness.

  • In a stir-fry or a sauté, with garlic and onion.
  • Infused with honey and lemon for comforting drinks.
  • In a marinade for fish or poultry.
  • Dusted over a fruit crumble or a loaf cake.

Benefits and properties

Ginger is traditionally recognised for easing digestion, calming nausea and supporting the body through tired spells. It contains gingerol, a compound studied for its anti-inflammatory properties.

How to store ginger

Keep the powder in an airtight jar, away from light and heat. Its aromatic power stays intact for 8 to 12 months. Fresh rhizome keeps for a few weeks in a dry place or wrapped in the fridge, or you can grate it and freeze it.

Frequently asked questions

Fresh ginger or powder? Fresh for stir-fries and lively infusions. Powder for baking, dry marinades and everyday cooking.

How much ginger a day? 1 to 2 g of powder a day is a sound working dose. For a therapeutic effect, ask a professional for advice.

Does ginger make dishes very hot? It brings warmth without masking anything: an aromatic pungency, subtler than chilli.

Buying Madagascar ginger

For everyday cooking, take the 40 g glass jar or the 40 g spice jar.

See also: our Madagascar ginger and the curry, turmeric & ginger trio.

In the shop

What we sell

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Our terroirs

Where each spice comes from

Our map holds two points. Vanilla grows in the SAVA, in the north-east. Peppers, spices and combava come from Vangaindrano, in the south-east.

Madagascar · our terroirs SAVA Vangaindrano
Bourbon vanilla pods laid on marble Bourbon vanilla
Madagascar black peppercorns spread out Peppers and berries
Stacked cinnamon sticks, rolled bark Cinnamon
Whole dried cloves Clove
Turmeric powder and pieces of rhizome Turmeric
Ginger rhizome and fresh slices Ginger
Glass jar of Désiré combava powder Combava
Dried pili-pili chillies and a dish of crushed chilli Pili-pili chilli

Prepared Bourbon pods, standard grade.

Madagascar black pepper, whole peppercorns.

Dried bark, rolled into sticks.

Whole cloves.

Turmeric powder and cut rhizome.

Ginger rhizome and slices.

Our combava powder, in a glass jar.

Dried pili-pili, whole and crushed.

01
SAVANorth-east coast
02
VangaindranoSouth-east coast
03
VangaindranoSouth-east coast
04
VangaindranoSouth-east coast
05
VangaindranoSouth-east coast
06
VangaindranoSouth-east coast
07
VangaindranoSouth-east coast
08
VangaindranoSouth-east coast

Vanilla

Sambava, Antalaha, Vohémar, Andapa. Our vines climb there, on the north-east coast, and flowering runs from September to November.

Peppers and berries

Black pepper, white pepper, pink berries. Voatsiperifery is not planted: it is gathered from the vine, in the forest.

Cinnamon

Our cinnamon trees grow in agroforestry. The bark is taken from young branches in the rainy season, when the sap rises.

Clove

The clove is a flower bud, picked before it opens. It then dries until it hardens and turns deep brown.

Turmeric

The rhizome comes out of the ground, is washed then sliced. We dry it at low temperature: that is what preserves the colour and the curcuminoids.

Ginger

Same soil as turmeric, same botanical family. We offer it as a powder and in a grinder, depending on how you cook.

Combava

A small green citrus with a bumpy skin. Everything is in the zest, which we dry before grinding it into powder.

Pili-pili chilli

Picked bright red, with no green patch. It dries in the sun on racks, then is sorted by hand, fruit by fruit.

Two terroirs, one family. No broker between the plot and your jar.

Vanille Désiré · Madagascar

Photographs from our own catalogue. The outline of the island is a simplified drawing with no cartographic value. With us, vanilla comes only from the SAVA; peppers, spices and combava come from Vangaindrano.

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