Pepper-Passion

Sometimes a company name says it all and this is one of those times. A passion for pepper and a woodworking hobby has led to a business that can make pepper passionistas out of all of us.

Photo: Bruce & Angela Morgan

In the late 90s, Bruce Morgan took up an old hobby—woodworking. He made several beautiful display cabinets and then came up with the idea of making pepper mills. "I have always loved pepper," he says. He made a few mills, then a few more. Family and friends started asking for them. In the meantime, he met and married Angela. A friend got him to commit to bringing some mills to a Kirkland event. For someone trained as an engineer who had been selling fitness equipment internationally, it was a very different path. Angela encouraged Bruce to follow his heart. In 2003, he created a website for his new company. Although the woodwork was featured, he thought it sensible to sell peppercorns as well.

How is this special, you might ask. Bruce not only has created six of his own designs for the mills, he uses the best of the best, high-end and often hard-to-find woods. He never laminates wood; his mills feature seamless transition between the head and body of the mill, what he calls a "blended body." Although the top twists like other mills, the wood grains match up. "They’re more difficult to produce, but it’s the foundation of my design philosophy," Bruce says. He uses three-inch thick stock which is not always available. "It’s more profitable for someone to cut one or two-inch thick stock and that’s why some mills are expensive—I can’t always get the wood." His limited edition mills are very high end, made with wood not always available, like the Bethlehem olive wood. This is wood from Bethlehem’s ancient olive trees. It’s rarely cut down and the wood he gets is from trimmings or broken branches. When working with this wood, his shop smells like kalamata olives.

One of the very rare woods is Snakewood, found only in Suriname and Guyana. There are also the Holy Grail Burl woods which are very expensive if you can get them. "I’ve used four of the five holy grail woods. We don’t sell them every day, but if someone knows woods, they want these." Bruce and Angela both point out that these mills are functional art. "They’re meant to be used," says Bruce. "I give a lifetime warranty—either your life or mine. Wood collectors love them, and the foodie camp looks at them as jewelry for the dining room table." When selling, they like to tell the story first; as people understand what they’re looking at, they appreciate the value.

Photo: pepper mills courtesy of Pepper-Passion

Like wood, the peppercorns they source are premium. "Peppercorns are like wine grapes. Different regions, different soils create different flavors. While they may be the same peppercorn variety, they won’t taste the same. And like wine, you have to taste to decide which you prefer. Generally what you find in stores is uniformly low quality at a cheap price. Producers blend in a minimum of the higher-quality peppercorns." Bruce finds wholesalers who get the peppercorns at the point of import before they are blended. In a few cases, he gets them directly from the producer. Some pepper is virtually unknown in the US, like Kampot from Cambodia. The US is not considered a good market for high-end spices; most go to Japan and Europe.

The hard shell of a peppercorn keeps the freshness in, which is why freshly ground/cracked pepper has such flavor. Along with black peppercorns, Pepper-Passion offers green peppercorns which are berries picked before maturity; rose or pink pepper, which are actually not pepper but berries from a small tree related to the rose bush; white peppercorns which are picked near maturity but have the outer skin removed; and Szechuan peppercorns which are not true pepper, but berries from an Ash tree in China.

Since Bruce makes both salt and pepper mills, they have also started carrying sea salts that can be ground in the mills or applied by hand from a salt cellar. They carry nearly ten types including Sterling Atlantic coarse sea salt, Murray River pink flake salt from Australia, Fleur de Sel de Guerande from France and Alaea Hawaiian red sea salt.

As customers got more interested in salts and peppers, Bruce and Angela added a less expensive electric stainless steel mill and a pocket pepper mill (do you really want to be without a mill when you’re not at home?). The pocket pepper mill is the biggest seller on the website. To make it easier for customers to try the peppercorns and sea salts, Bruce created sampler packs. The black peppercorn sampler pack has seven types of peppercorns with an option to add organically-grown Pohnpei peppercorns from Micronesia. The sea salt sampler contains five salts. Additionally, there is a peppercorn omni-pack with everything in it. "We have no artificial flavor in the peppercorns and don’t do flavored salts. The Alderwood smoked salt is done in a smoker."

Although they sell to people in half a dozen different countries through the Internet, they prefer the face-to-face business model. "I try to answer the phone myself and take orders," says Bruce. "People come here, they know where we live." Angela agrees. "We offer Nordstrom-style customer service. People are happy when they get off the call. They love to be part of something entrepreneurial. We have very loyal customers and use their feedback. They feel they’re part of something. There’s a subculture of pepper lovers. We feel very fortunate to be part of this." They’ve done fun things for customers like Pepperware parties in someone’s home or woodworking lessons, and you’ll find them at various events around town. They don’t sell wholesale and don’t have a retail outlet. So if you’re feeling peppery or need a beautiful heirloom piece, just give them a call.

Connie Adams/June 2011

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