Cardamom, called the "Queen of Spices," comes from the dried, ripe fruit of a plant in the ginger family. Its sweet taste and enticing aroma are delicious in cakes and pastries, and in Indian and Middle Eastern spice blends. At McCormick, we carefully source our cardamom pods then remove the outer hull and grind only the inner seeds where the intense flavor resides. Cardamom is a favorite ingredient in spice cookies, buns and stollen, a sweet holiday bread, where it imparts a light lemony note. But European bakers aren’t the only ones who love its spicy, floral flavor.