Tellicherry peppercorns (Malabar) are like San Marzano tomatoes: they need to come from Tellicherry, a city on the Malabar coast of Kerala in India. They're considered some of the finest peppercorns in the world, and one of the few "names" in pepper that people are familiar with.  Fruity to grassy to citrus and pine—but most of all, a certain bright freshness. The sweet, balanced flavor and complex aroma make it a great stand-alone pepper.
 
Malabar pepper (tellicherry peppercorns) is a variety of black pepper that originated as a chance seedling in a geographical region that now forms part of the present day state of Kerala in India. The area of production of this variety of pepper now covers all the geographical regions that were once part of the Malabar region of the erstwhile Madras Presidency. These regions now entail the entire South India area. Malabar pepper was one of the most sought after commodities by the ancient Roman and Arab traders, and later by the early European navigators.