Black, white, and green peppercorns all come from the same plant.

All three varieties of peppercorn originate from the Piper nigrum, a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae native to the Malabar Coast of India. Black pepper is produced by harvesting the drupes when they are yellowish-red and then briefly cooking them in hot water. This heat ruptures cell walls and speeds up the activity of enzymes that turn the fruit black during the drying process.Green peppercorns are harvested while still unripe and green. To maintain their color, they are treated with sulfur dioxide, canned in brine, or freeze-dried to prevent the natural browning enzymes from activating. This results in a milder, fresher flavor compared to the more pungent black variety.White pepper consists only of the seed of the ripe fruit. The outer skin is removed through a process called retting, where the berries are soaked in water for about a week to decompose the flesh. Once the skin is rubbed off, the remaining seed is dried, resulting in a different chemical profile that lacks the terpene compounds found in the outer layer.Piperine is the primary alkaloid responsible for the heat in all these peppercorns. While black pepper contains about 4.6% to 9.7% piperine, white pepper often has a slightly higher concentration by weight because the non-pungent skin has been removed. The global pepper trade is so significant that it was once referred to as 'black gold' and drove much of the Age of Discovery.