Only two silent monks know all 130 plants that go into this herbal liqueur.

In the mountains of the Philippines, nuns raise funds with a sweet spread made from purple yams.

During Christmastime in the Philippines, purple reigns with this colorful sticky rice snack.

When faced with less-than-optimal ingredients, Swedes and Norwegians once clarified their brews with eggs.

At an abbey in the Tuscan countryside, monks specialize in a curative, flower-based liqueur.

This French Creole Christmas Eve tradition takes midnight munchies to a whole new level.

A New Year's Eve tradition of scarfing down 12 grapes for good luck.

These entrails identified safe venues for Black musicians during the Jim Crow era.

The Ukrainian wedding bread is so beautiful, it's displayed near the altar.

This hallucinogenic honey can sell for over $60 a pound on the black market.

This dark, rare fruit lasts a very long time.

To eat the world's rarest pasta, you must first complete a 20-mile pilgrimage.

This rare berry grows only in two Chilean towns.

The fairest and rarest of them all.

An industry run almost entirely by women is developing new sustainable methods to harvest this highly coveted riverbed salt.

The basement of a 19th-century government building provides peak conditions for delicious fungi.

Once a year, communities on the tiny island gather to preserve the art of making licorice-flavored apple butter.

So strong is Kuwaitis’ love for this seasonal delicacy that an entire market gets set up just for its sale.

Deer antlers were once essential to light and fluffy baking.

This powder proved essential to Arctic exploration, war, and the ice cream parlor.

This once-common spice is now almost completely unknown outside India.

Real maraschinos were born more than a century ago in an Italian distillery.

Invented in Scotland in the late 1800s, this syrupy “instant coffee” is now a beloved baking ingredient.

In ancient Rome, this fermented fish sauce sparked a booming industry.