Did you know that there are around 4,000 varieties of chili worldwide? These can be divided into five main species and 28 wild subspecies:
- Capsicum annuum
- C. baccatum
- C. chinense
- C. frutescens
- Capsicum pubescens
Capsicum annuum forms the largest group, while particularly hot chilies often belong to Capsicum chinense. The wild chilies are somewhat rarer and are divided into around 28 subspecies. The exact number varies depending on the source, as it is sometimes difficult to determine.
Some well-known chili varieties are
- Jalapeno
- Bhut Jolokia / Ghost Pepper
- Carolina Reaper
- Bishop’s Crown
- Shishito
- Anaheim
- Tabasco
- Carolina Reaper
- Piri Piri
- Habanero
- Scotch Bonnet
- Gorria
- Black Pearl
- Bird’s Eye
- Poblano and Ancho
- 7 Pot
- Caribbean Red Habanero
- Serrano
- De Cayenne
- Cherry peppers
- Prairie Fire
- Rocoto
- Aji Amarillo
Humans have been cultivating chili plants for around 6,000 years. Excavations have revealed that the pungent berries were collected and eaten much earlier. Chilies spread from Mexico across the American continent to Brazil, Cuba and finally from the southern states of the USA to Chile.
When Christopher Columbus brought back Capsicum plants from his travels, the spice quickly became known in Europe as “Spanish pepper”. A distinctive characteristic of chilies is their heat, which is graded from 0 to 10 or more precisely on the Scoville scale. At the top end of the scale are habaneros, which are very spicy. Even hotter are Bhut Jolokia, Trinidad Moruga Scorpion and the Carolina Reaper, which are considered the hottest chilies in the world.
In addition to the heat, the chilies also differ in taste, size and color of the ripe fruit.