English: Unripe drupes of en:Piper nigrum in November at Trivandrum, Kerala, India. Black pepper is produced from these unripe drupes. The drupes are cooked briefly in hot water. The heat ruptures cell walls in the pepper, speeding the work of browning enzymes during drying. The drupes are dried for several days, during which the pepper around the seed shrinks and darkens into a thin, wrinkled black layer. Once dried, the spice is called black peppercorn.
White pepper consists of the seed of the pepper plant alone, with the darker coloured skin of the pepper fruit removed. This is usually accomplished by a process known as retting, where fully ripe red pepper berries are soaked in water for about a week, during which the flesh of the pepper softens and decomposes. Rubbing then removes what remains of the fruit, and the naked seed is dried.