Chia seeds are the edible seeds of Salvia hispanica, a flowering plant in the mint family native to central and southern Mexico, or of the related Salvia columbariae of the southwestern United States and Mexico. Chia seeds are oval and gray with black and white spots, having a diameter around 2 millimetres.
Chinese yellow rock sugar is lumps of crystallized sugar made from unprocessed sugar cane. It has a yellow tinge to it and is often used in Asian cooking.
Cayenne pepper is a super spicy chili that rates high on the Scoville scale—a method for measuring peppers' heat levels. Ground paprika is produced by grinding numerous peppers and can have a flavor ranging from sweet to fiery.
Oregano is a species of flowering plant in the mint family Lamiaceae. It was native to the Mediterranean region, but widely naturalised elsewhere in the temperate Northern Hemisphere. Oregano is a woody perennial plant, growing 20–80 cm tall, with opposite leaves 1–4 cm long
It's essentially white cane sugar that hasn't been refined yet. Black sugar is typically made by boiling sugarcane juice until it turns into a dark syrup. That syrup is then cooled, leaving dark brown-black blocks of sugar.
White peppercorns are actually a byproduct of a black peppercorn. When mature, black peppercorns are soaked in running water and the outer layer is rubbed away, a white peppercorn with subtler flavor results. Loved by the French, these are ground and used for cream sauces and clear broths.
Refined sugar is made by extracting and processing the sugar naturally found in foods like corn, sugar beets, and sugar cane. This refined sugar is then added to foods for various purposes, including to boost flavor.
