From black pepper. The most popular of all spices (salt is not a spice) is not related to sweet red, green, or hot peppers, but is the dried berry of a woody, climbing vine knows as Piper nigrum L.

On the vine the peppercorn is neither white nor black. As the fruit ripens, it turns from green to yellow and then to red. To make black pepper, the berries are picked while somewhat immature and then dried. As they dry, their skin turns a dark color. When ground, the pepper contains both light and dark particles—because the whole peppercorn is used—but the general appearance is dark.

White pepper is left on the vine to mature, at which point it is easier to separate the dark skin. The berries are soaked to loosen the skin as much as possible and then rubbed to remove it entirely. After the dark skin is discarded, the naked white peppercorns are put out in the sun to dry. . . .

Why bother with white pepper? Often it is used solely for aesthetic purposes, such as in light-colored sauces and soups where little black specks may upset the chef’s carefully orchestrated balance (or be misconstrued as little black insect fragments). Some spice wimps also prefer white pepper for its milder taste and smell. . . .

[Green peppercorns] . . . are immature berries not left out in the sun but either packed in liquid (usually wine vinegar or brine) or freeze-dried in order to retain the dinstinctive green color. Because green peppercorns are harvested at an early stage of the berry’s development, they are quite mild, but they do have a distinctive tase, which is prized by nouvelle cuisine restaurateurs.

—David Feldman, from Why Do Clocks Run Clockwise? and other Imponderables, 1988.