Various Chili Pepper Type Introduction

All types of peppers are part of the genus Capsicum, which includes hot varieties, also known as chile peppers, and sweet varieties, such as the bell pepper. Up until the arrival of Spanish and Portuguese explorers in the New World, peppers grew only in Latin America. Along with corn, tomatoes, and beans, the Europeans brought back some of the peppers and on their travels introduced the plant to the rest of the world, where it took off like wildfire.

Truly international in their appeal, peppers have become integral to cuisines across the world, from Mexico to Thailand, the Congo to India, and from Hungary to Tunisia.

The heat of a pepper is measured using Scoville units: The scale ranges from 0 (as in bell peppers) all the way to 3,000,000 (as in the spiciest chile in the world, the Pepper X). Most dried chiles you will encounter fall somewhere in the middle but can still be pretty hot! The Scoville scale is a good base for knowing how hot your chiles are, but know that the heat can vary according to climate and vegetation. The relatively mild poblano weighs in at about 1,500 Scoville heat units (SHU), while the super-hot habañero packs a whopping 250,000 SHUs (or more).

If you want the flavor without the mouth-scorching fire, remove the seeds and interior ribs from a chile before cooking it. It’s also a good idea to have dairy products, such as milk or yogurt, on hand—they contain casein, which helps neutralize capsaicin, the chemical that gives chiles their heat. And remember: Always protect your skin by wearing gloves and never touch your eyes when handling hot peppers.

Discover 20 popular types of peppers and how to cook with them.

 

1. Bell Pepper

Alternate Names: Green pepper, red pepper, sweet bell pepper, capsicum

Characteristics: Relatively large in size, the bell-shaped pepper in its immature state is green with a slightly bitter flavor. As it matures, it turns bright red and becomes sweeter. You can also find yellow, orange, white, pink, and even purple varieties. With their high water content, bell peppers will add moisture to any dish. They’re also great for adding color.

Scoville heat units: 0

2. Poblano Pepper

Alternate Name: Ancho

Characteristics: Somewhat large and heart-shaped, the poblano is common in Mexican dishes such as chiles rellenos. Are poblano peppers spicy? Yes, but only mildly spicy. At maturity, the poblano turns dark red-brown and can be dried, at which point it’s referred to as an ancho or mulato. Anchos have a rich, raisin-like sweetness. The high yield of flesh to skin makes anchos great for sauces.

Scoville heat units: 1,000 to 2,000

3. Anaheim Pepper

Alternate Names: California green chile, chile verde, New Mexican chile

Characteristics: This long pepper is relatively mild and very versatile. When mature, the Anaheim turns deep red and are referred to a chile Colorado or California red chile. Anaheims are popular in salsas and dishes from the American Southwest.

Scoville heat units: 500 to 2,500

4. Serrano Pepper

Characteristics: Just a couple of inches long, with a tapered end, this small pepper packs quite a bit of heat. Beware: The smaller the pepper, the hotter it is. When ripe, serranos are red or yellowish orange—they can be cooked in both their ripe and unripe states. Serranos are common in Mexican and Thai cooking.

Scoville heat units: 6,000 to 23,000

5. Habañero Pepper

Characteristics: Small and bulbous, this chile, in the same family as the Scotch bonnet, is one of the hottest on the Scoville scale. If you can get past the heat, habañeros also have a fruity flavor. They’re popular on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula and in the Caribbean, where they’re used to make hot sauces.

Scoville heat units: 150,000 to 350,000

6. Cayenne Pepper

Alternate Names: Finger chile, Ginnie pepper, and bird pepper

Characteristics: Slender and tapered, this chile is probably most familiar in its dried, ground form—the powder known as cayenne pepper. Ground cayenne pepper is a main ingredient in the chili powder that flavors Tex-Mex dishes such as chili con carne. It’s one of the spiciest types of peppers!

Scoville heat units: 30,000 to 50,000

7. Rocoto Pepper

Alternate names: Ají rocoto, hairy pepper and locoto

Characteristics: This South American pepper looks like a miniature bell pepper, and, like a bell pepper, can come in shades of orange, yelllow and red. The hottest rocotos are typically yellow, but red rocotos are the most common. Inside, the pepper has unique black seeds. It’s sometimes referred to as the hairy pepper thanks to its furry leaves. Rocoto have a crisp and fruity flavor, and are commonly used in salsa.

Scoville heat units: 100,000 to 250,000

8. Piri Piri

Alternate Names: Peri peri, African bird’s-eye pepper and African red devil pepper

Characteristics: When Portuguese sailors made port of call in what’s now South Africa and Mozambique, they brought ashore little chile peppers called bird’s eyes, or peri-peri in Swahili. The name also came to refer to the piquant sauce made from these chiles, as well as to the Portuguese-African method of cooking prawns, chicken, or anything else in this sauce. Nando’s bottled version is a mainstay for those who don’t want to make it from scratch. Though it’s a relatively small pepper, growing only one to two inches, it packs quite a punch.

Scoville Heat Units: 50,000 to 175,000

9. Mirasol Chili

Alternate Names: Guajillo

Characteristics: Bright red and pointed upward, these peppers grow toward the sun, which is why they were given the name mirasol (which means “looking at the sun” in Spanish). In their dried form, they are called guajillo. Guajillo are fruity, tangy, and mildly acidic, and are a common ingredient in traditional al pastor. They are also one of the main chilis used in mole sauce.

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Scoville Heat Units: 2,500 to 5,000

10. Tabasco Pepper

Characteristics: Best known for the sauce that bares its name, this pepper grows throughout the world. At maturity, the pepper measures one to two inches and is bright red. To create the famous tabasco sauce, the pepper is smashed and combined with salt and vinegar, which tempers the pepper’s heat (the Scoville rating of tabasco sauce is 2,500 to 5,000 — a mere fraction of its rating as a pepper).

Scoville heat units: 30,000 to 60,000

11. Jalapeño Pepper

Alternate Names: Chipotle

Scoville heat units: 3,500 to 8,000

Characteristics: This Mexican pepper is typically plucked from the vine while still green. If allowed to ripen more, they will turn red and take on a slightly fruity flavored. Jalapeños are a tasty ingredient commonly used to in salsa and sauces. When dried, a jalapeño is called a chipotle. Smoke-dried chipotles come in two varieties: meco (mellow) and moritas (spicier). Smoky, woodsy, and spicy, chipotles are the perfect ingredient for salsas, sauces, escabeche, and adobo.

12. Cherry Pepper

Alternate names: Pimiento and pimento

Characteristics: This lovely pepper is sweet on the outside and the inside. Bright red and shaped like a heart, this large pepper barely registers on the Scoville scale, but makes up for its lack of spice with a sweet, succulent flavor. You’ll commonly find cherry peppers chopped and stuffed into green olives, in pimento loaves and pimento cheese.

Scoville heat units: 500

13. Chilaca

Alternate Names: Pasilla and chile negro

Characteristics: Black and wrinkly, chilacas boast a prune-like flavor with a hint a hint of licorice. “Chilaca” is an Aztec term meaning old or gray-haired, which is fitting given the pepper’s wrinkly appearance. When dried, the chilaca is called a pasilla or chile negro, and is toasted or soaked and blended into sauces, often combined with fruit.

Scoville heat units: 1,500 to 2,500

14. Banana Pepper

 

Alternate Names: Yellow wax pepper and banana chili

Characteristics: This mild yet tangy pepper adds a kick to pizza or sandwiches. This pepper usually takes on a bright yellow hue as it ripens, but occasionally grows to be red, orange or green instead.

Scoville heat units: 0–500

15. Piquillo

Alternate Names: Little beak pepper

Characteristics: This mild, sweet pepper hails from northern Spain and features a smokey, tart flavor that’s ideal for sandwiches and sauces, and also thrives as a compliment to meat and cheese. You’ll often find them jarred in your grocer’s gourmet section. As they mature, they grow from green to red. They measure three to four inches long and are slightly curved at the end, resembling a little beak.

Scoville heat units: 500 to 1,000

16. Shishito

Characteristics: Harvested while still green, these thin-walled peppers can be pan-seared and eaten on their own. They can also be added to pizza or to flavor dishes. The riper the shishito, the spicier the pepper.

Scoville heat units: 50 to 200

17. Basque Fryer

Alternate Names: Doux long des Landes, doux de Landes and piment basque

Characteristics: Located on the border of France and Spain, the Basque region boasts six official types of peppers. The most popular type is the Basque Fryer pepper, also known as the doux de Landes, meaning “sweet from Landes.” (Landes is located in southwest France). As the name suggests, the pepper is sweet. The Basque fryer is can be eaten raw, roasted or sautéed.

Scoville heat units: 0

18. Scotch Bonnet

Alternate Names: Bonney peppers, ball of fire peppers, cachucha and Caribbean red peppers

Characteristics: This spicy pepper is called a scotch bonnet thanks to its resemblance to the caps men wear in Scotland (tam o’ shanter hats, to be precise). It’s the hottest pepper in the Caribbean and used to flavor all sorts of island dishes, including jerk chicken. Though the pepper is most often spicy, you will occasionally find a sweet variety, called cachucha.

Scoville heat units: 80,000–400,000

19. Padrón Peppers

Characteristics: Padrón peppers are typically sweet and mild, but occasionally, a this pepper packs quite a bit of spice. The eponymous pepper grows in Padrón in northwestern Spain, and is often served, fried, as a tapa. They can also be served grilled.

Scoville heat units: 500 – 2,500

20. Ghost Pepper

Alternate names: Bhut naga jolokia, bhut jolokia, naga jolokia, ghost chili, U-morok, ghost jolokia and red naga

Characteristics: Sometimes called Bhut Naga Jolokia (bhut means ghost, naga means snake, and jolokia is chile), the name alone sounds daunting. This chile has a venomous bite! The ghost pepper hails from Northeastern India and is also cultivated in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. So how hot is this hair raiser? With more than 1 million Scoville units, it’s approximately half as hot as the pepper spray used by law enforcement but 100 times hotter than a jalapeño. One of the hottest (edible) peppers in the world, ghost peppers are used — sparingly — in chutney and curry.

The 13 Spiciest Peppers Ranked from Hotter to Hottest

What Makes Peppers Spicy?

Believe it or not, a pepper’s spice level is tied to an evolutionary survival tactic. Peppers contain the chemical compound capsaicin, which, when consumed by mammals, sends messages through our tongue’s receptors to warn us of its potency. “This type of receptor is also activated by pain and heat, and chemicals such as ethanol and acid,” says Dr. Irwin Donis-González, co-director of the Postharvest Research and Extension Center at the University of California, Davis, of the sometimes intense experience of eating a particularly spicy pepper. “The role of this receptor is to carry tissue-damaging information,” adds Dr. Donis-González. “And because of this, the brain detects the presence of capsaicin as pain.”

While different types of peppers contain varied amounts of capsaicin (and some, such as bell peppers, don’t at all!), there are ways to dampen the impact of a spicy pepper. Most capsaicin is concentrated in the pepper’s connective pith (not the seeds!). “Different components [of the pepper] contain significantly different levels of capsaicin — those with higher capsaicin levels will generate a higher spicy mouth feeling,” says Dr. Donis-González. The skin and flesh of a pepper contains about 1% of its capsaicin, while the pith contains approximately 87% and seeds contain 12% of its capsaicin, adds Dr. Donis-González. If you’d like to reduce the level of capsaicin and tone down your pepper’s pop of heat, simply remove the pith and seeds and eat the outer portion of the pepper only.

How Are Peppers Classified as Spicy?

A pepper’s heat level is measured by the Scoville Scale, a classification system invented by pharmacist Wilbur Scoville in 1912 as the Scoville Organoleptic Test. The test — in which chili peppers are consumed by trained testers and diluted until the participants cannot measure any “heat” left — organizes peppers into categories by their Scoville Heat Level, or SHU. Peppers are classified by a range of SHU due to the discrepancies in subjective human testing as well as the variance in capsaicin in peppers of the same species.

Hot Cherry Pepper
SHU level: 2,500–5,000
Small, round, and red, the moderately spicy hot cherry pepper is similar in appearance to the sweet Peppadew and pimento. Like the Peppadew and pimento, the slightly more spicy cherry pepper is most commonly pickled and appears in charcuterie platters and antipasto dishes, and as a sandwich topping.

Jalapeño Pepper
SHU level: 2,500–10,000
Bright green jalapeño peppers are one of the most well-known spicy peppers (although their SHU levels are comparatively mild to other spicy varieties!). Originating from Mexico, jalapeño peppers are used in everything from spicy margaritas and stuffed poppers to dips and tacos.

Chipotle Pepper
SHU level: 5,000–10,000
Chipotle peppers are jalapeño peppers that have been smoked and dried, resulting in their rich, earthy flavor profile.

Company Profile

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