Gone are the days of political upheaval: Grenada today has turned a corner and is mercifully laid-back. It is a tropical paradise best known for three things: spice, winter sun, and folklore. Of all the spices that grow on the island (the greenest and most fertile of the Lesser Antilles), nutmeg is the queen, featuring on the country’s flag and used in everything from teas to liquors. All around the island, its scent fills the air along with those of cloves, cinnamon and bay leaf. These are medicinal herbs, too: good for the gut and playing a vital role in regulating the circadian rhythm. Though you wouldn’t know it if you came in August for Carnival (or Spicemas), where the heady, camphorous mixture of herbs, drums and rum errs more on the side of rakishness.