What do Sichuan peppercorns look like and how to choose them?

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1. What does it look like?

2. How to choose

Zanthoxylum bungeanum is a small deciduous tree that can reach a height of 7 meters. The leaves are oval or elliptical in shape. The fruit is round, green when unripe, and red or purple when mature, with slightly raised fruit. Smaller. When selecting Sichuan peppercorns, you can smell them, weigh them, pinch them with your hands, or soak them in water. The fake ones are usually dyed, and the water produced after soaking them will be red.

1. What it looks like

It is a small deciduous tree that can reach a height of 7 meters. There are thorns on the stems, short thorns on the branches, and short soft hairs. The leaves are opposite, oval or elliptical in shape, with small cracks on the edges. The fruit produced is round, not too big, green when not mature, and turns red or purple when mature. There are 4-5mm fruit petals and slightly raised dots. After being stored for a long time, The seeds will come out and the outer shell will crack in half.

2. How to choose

1 2. Smell: If you smell the real Sichuan peppercorns carefully, there will be a strong numbing aroma, while the fake Sichuan peppercorns will not smell obvious.

2. Weigh the weight: The pile of real Zanthoxylum bungeanum feels very heavy Light. If there are not many of them but they feel heavy when weighed, it may be fake peppercorns.

3. Pinch: You can also pinch it with your hands. Real peppercorns are more prickly and may be crushed with a gentle pinch, while fake peppercorns are not easy to crush.

4. Soak in water: You can also identify it when soaked in water. The water that is really soaked is light brown. If the water is fake, it is usually dyed. The color of the water that is soaked in this way is darker and looks red.

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