Black clay tabletop items are a specialty of Colombia.
Used commonly throughout home and restaurant kitchens, sleek black clay casseroles and servers may look modern, but they trace their roots back at least 700 years: Pitchers and vases made of black clay have been unearthed in pre-Columbian archaeological sites. The unglazed clay pieces are ideal for traditional Colombian preparations like ajiaco, a soup, or slowly cooked beans, which are enriched and concentrated by the porous clay’s slow release of steam.