In Phnom Penh the question is not the same as in Siem Reap. You are not passing through and you are not buying a souvenir. You are looking for pepper you will use every day for the next six months, and you want to know where to restock without thinking about it.
The shop and the workshop are in the same place
Our workshop is in Phnom Penh. The pepper arrives from Kampot, it is sorted, graded and packed here, then goes out to the shops. That changes two things for you.
First, freshness. Pepper packed three weeks ago does not smell like a bag that has sat on a shelf for months. Dried pepper does not spoil, but it fades.
Second, formats. Because the packing happens here, we can handle quantities a shop for travellers does not offer: large volumes for a restaurant, large formats for a household, matching gift boxes in numbers for a company.
Delivery in town
We deliver across Phnom Penh by courier. Order on the site or by phone, pay on delivery if you prefer, and receive it at home or at the office. Many of our customers living in the city go this way, because crossing Phnom Penh for a bag of pepper serves nobody.
We also deliver to hotels, which is useful when family is visiting and you want them to leave with something.
Pepper as a gift, the one that always works
A colleague heading back to Europe, a client passing through, an end of year gift for a team. Kampot pepper is probably the safest Cambodian gift there is: it is light, it does not break, it travels well, it keeps for years, and almost everybody cooks.
Red is the one that impresses, because it is rare and because it surprises people in desserts as much as on meat. Black is the one that actually gets used. A box with both settles the question.
Our Kampot peppers
For volume orders, corporate gifts, restaurants and hotels, we have a dedicated contact, and our trade catalogue is available from our professional area.
If you buy elsewhere
Phnom Penh has several good addresses for pepper, delicatessens, a few farm shops, and the supermarket aisles. The reflex is the same everywhere: look for the PGI logo on the packaging, not the word Kampot in the product name.
We set out the authenticity criteria and the most common traps, including pepper of the same variety grown outside the PGI area, in our Siem Reap guide. They hold for the whole country.
The district, and what is around it
Phnom Penh is not visited the way Siem Reap is. There is no single site pulling everything towards it, there is a city, a river and markets. The quays, along the Tonlé Sap and the Mekong, are walked at the end of the day when the heat drops. The Royal Palace and the National Museum are in the same area.
Closer to our own subject, two markets are worth seeing, less to buy in than to understand. The Central Market, Psar Thmey, under its yellow art deco dome. And the Russian Market, Toul Tom Poung, denser, where the aisles of spices and dry goods give an accurate idea of what a Cambodian kitchen actually runs on.
If your question is more what to bring home than what to visit, our guide on what to bring back from Cambodia covers the whole subject, luggage formats included.
Practical tips in Phnom Penh
Have it delivered rather than carrying it. This is the city where that makes the most sense: our courier covers a perimeter around the shop, hotels included, and you collect everything at the right moment instead of hauling a kilo of pepper between appointments.
Buy in volume if you live here. The 200 and 500 gram kraft bags are in a different league from the gift formats on price per kilo, and they are what our own staff take.
And if you are looking for a gift to hand over the same evening, the tubes and palm leaf boxes are ready to give as they are, with no extra wrapping.
Frequently asked questions
Can Kampot pepper be delivered in Phnom Penh?
Yes, we deliver across town by courier, hotels included. Cash on delivery is available.
How should pepper be stored once opened?
Away from light and humidity, whole, in its resealed bag or a jar. Grind at the last moment. Whole it keeps for years, ground it loses most of its aroma within weeks.
Do you have rates for restaurants and companies?
Yes. Volumes, formats and terms differ from the shop, so the simplest thing is to contact us directly.
What is the difference with market pepper?
Traceability. Market pepper can be excellent, but nobody can tell you which plantation it came from or whether it grew inside the PGI area. The PGI logo is the only marker you can check.