Salt And Pepper From The Reluctant Trading Experiment | Highland Park, IL - Tasting Table Chicago

"Most people don't think too much about pepper," says Scott Eirinberg of The Reluctant Trading Experiment.

Fortunately for us, Eirinberg isn't most people.

Though a series of life's twists and turns, including a persuasive Indian friend, the Highland Park resident found himself as an importer of organic Tellicherry peppercorns ($7.50 for 2 oz.) from Kerala, India–fragrant black spheres that have us grinding our peppermill with abandon.

"It seemed crazy to start a company for peppercorns, but I just couldn't believe how good they were," says Eirinberg.

Although our spice collection ranks among our most prized possessions, it had never included top-notch black pepper–we once swore off the stuff for a month after a particularly biting batch of nondescript peppercorns ruined a meal. Now, we're hooked on Tellicherry.

Green Tellicherry peppercorns | TRTE's packaging
That aforementioned Indian friend lives near the pepper farms and helps Eirinberg buy his peppercorns directly from the growers. We've taken to grinding them coarsely as a garnish for soft-scrambled eggs, grilled vegetables and simple pastas like carbonara and cacio e pepe.

Eirinberg's recent trip to visit salt producers in Iceland led to a second product: flaky, crunchy, pristine salt from Arctic waters ($10 for 4 oz.). It's harvested at the base of glaciers and processed using naturally hot geyser water–and it's booted our former go-to garnishing salt off the counter.