I’m giving a peppermill as a gift and want to give some peppercorns, too. Are there any particular kind that are better than others, or all alike? A little bottle of Spice Islands or a bottle from the dollar store?
When are you giving it? If you want to give good peppercorns, then get them from The Spice House or Penzeys. They have tons of options. Multicolor are very pretty and make a striking gift. I prefer just tellicherry black in my mill, though, because most often what I want is freshly ground black pepper. If I want the others, I use a coffee grinder kept just for spices.
Don’t get dollar store peppercorns. They’re likely too stale to taste like anything.
Grocery store selections have gotten lots better in the last few years. I would get a tri-color personally, as that’s what I use. I have found good sized bottles or sometimes they’re in a plastic pouch for not crazy pricing (even organic if I’m in the right store for that selection) at most stores in my area.
The best stuff I’ve used is McCormick’s Gourmet Collection while tellicherry (not the “regular” stuff). I’d use it exclusively, but my wife bought a giant tub of Kirkland branded tellicherry from Costco. It’s pretty good, but not the best.
If the peppermill is clear, use tricolor peppercorns. If it isn’t, Malabar or Tellicherry should be your choice.
Here’s a good rundown of various peppers. For all-purpose peppercorns, I like tellicherry, and those aren’t too difficult to find. I’m pretty sure I’ve bought them at Costco, even.
Tricolor is pretty, but I tend to prefer single variety of peppercorns (and, well, the pink peppercorns aren’t even pepper proper, but another type of dried berry. They have a very distinctive fruity flavor to them, and don’t really taste like pepper to me. I like them well enough, but not as an all-purpose pepper.)
Thanks. It’s a clear grinder so I was considering the multi-colored peppercorns.