A quiet jar of cardamom pods

I opened a pack of green cardamom for tea — the pods spilled on the table, some rolled toward the hob. On the heat the oil in the capsule goes dull fast, and later the tea smells of dust. I tip the pods into a dry jar, screw the lid until it clicks, and set it on a cool shelf away from the hob.

A quiet jar of cardamom pods. Nigella is about a flatbread crust; poppy is about a roll; caraway is about cabbage. Here it is whole green cardamom pods: they need cool and a shut jar, or the scent leaves before the tea — not a speech about ground cardamom sachets from the aisle.

If a pod already smells oily-bitter — to the bin, I don’t stir it into dough “for green”. I split or lightly crush only just before brewing, I don’t pound a week ahead. I take the pack already open at ours.

I don’t need limp pods from the edge of the hob. I need a jar from which tea smells of fresh cardamom again. In your kitchen is cardamom put cool under a lid — or left spilling by the heat?