Peppers

Madame Jeanette peppers hail from Suriname, a small country in South America. They look like small, elongated bell peppers, and ripen to be a bright yellow color. The Madame Jeanette pepper is said to have been named after a Brazilian sex worker (a neighboring country to Suriname). How hot? 125,000–325,000 Scoville Heat Units (SHU) Scientific…

Mad hatter peppers originated in South America, and are popular in Bolivian and Peruvian cuisine. It is a hybrid of the Bishop’s Crown pepper bred to be resistant to disease and insects and to be more prolific. In 2017 it won the All-America Selection Award (AAS), meaning that it was rigorously tested and shown to…

The jalapeño pepper is the #1 most popular pepper in the United States, Mexico, and beyond. It originated in Mexico but is widely produced in the US (California, New Mexico, and Texas) — with more than 460 million pounds produced in 2014. Jalapeños tend to be 2-3.5 inches long, but can grow to be as…

Hungarian wax peppers notably range from almost undetectably spicy (1,500 SHU) to pretty dang hot (10,000 SHU). They mature to be around 8″ long, but are usually picked to be eaten before they are fully mature, at around 5-6″. The peppers turn red and become considerably spicier as they mature further. Wax peppers get their…

Guajillo refers to a preparation of Mirasol chili peppers rather than to the name of a plant variety itself. Guajillo is the dried version of the Mirasol, and along with ancho chilies is one of the most common and popular peppers in Mexico. While some dried peppers, like pasilla peppers, look shriveled like a raisin,…

Datil peppers first came on my radar when I got a free packet of seeds from Baker’s Creek Rare Seeds. And since I see posts and questions about Datil peppers every day in the Baker’s Creek Facebook group, I thought I would do a deep dive into everything you might want to know about these…

Chipotles Moritas are ripe jalapeños that are then smoked and dried. They start out as regular green jalapeños but are allowed to ripen on the vine until they are a deep red. Because they are essentially jalapeños they are comparable in terms of spiciness, and fall on the milder scale of more chili peppers, but…

Chipotle is the smoked form of jalapeños, and there are two main types: meco and morita. What’s the difference? Chipotle morita is peppers that are harvested while they are red and ripe, while chipotle meco is peppers that are harvested once they have already started to dry on the bush. The morita variation is more…

Banana peppers, also referred to as yellow wax peppers or Ooty chiles, are a mild chili popularly pickled and preserved. They are picked when they are bright yellow, and then they mature to be red or orange, and grow to be around 2-3 inches long. They get their name because their shape and color resemble…

The Anaheim chili pepper is a mildly spicy pepper named for the city of Anaheim, California (where Disneyland is!) They were brought to California via New Mexico, and are extremely similar to hatch chilis because they originated from the same plant. While Anaheim chilis were cultivated in California, Hatch Chilis remained in New Mexico, and…

Alma paprika peppers are also referred to as “sweet apple” and hail from Hungary. The name “alma” means pie in Hungarian, and it is named after both pies and apples because they are round in shape. Alma paprika peppers are sweet and slightly spicy and are great for eating raw or drying and grinding into…