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A living field guide to Capsicum

Every pepper has a second story.

Fresh or dried, sweet or searing—discover how 10,000 years of cultivation turned one American fruit into a world of flavor.

Enter the field guide ↓
28Specimens
5Species
0–2.2mScoville
Plate no. 01 / CapsicumBotanical study of colorful pepper varieties with leaves and flowers
Fruit of the nightshade family · Solanaceae

The Scoville scale

Heat is only
one dimension.

Capsaicin creates the burn, but aroma gives a pepper its identity. Scoville Heat Units measure pungency—not flavor, sweetness, smoke, or fruit.

0
Sweet500
Mild10k
Medium50k
Hot2.2m
Superhot

The field guide

Know your capsicum.

Browse names, fresh-to-dried transformations, heat, flavor, origin, history, and culinary traditions.

Fresh becomes dried

One fruit. Another name.

Drying is more than preservation. Water recedes, sugars concentrate, and fresh green notes deepen into fruit, tobacco, cacao, and smoke.

Poblano → AnchoRaisin · cacao · earth
Jalapeño → ChipotleSmoke · leather · sweet heat
Chilaca → PasillaBerry · cocoa · herbs
Mirasol → GuajilloTart fruit · tea · pine

A brief history

From the Americas to every table.

All chile peppers began in the Americas. Their global journey is a story of Indigenous agriculture, empire, trade, and extraordinary local adaptation.

  1. Gathered in the Americas

    Wild Capsicum fruits are eaten across Central and South America.

  2. Domestication takes root

    Indigenous farmers select peppers for fruit size, flavor, color, and pungency.

  3. A seed circles the globe

    Peppers travel from the Caribbean to Iberia, then along trade routes into Africa and Asia.

  4. New regional languages

    Chiles become essential from Hungary and Turkey to India, Thailand, Sichuan, and Mozambique.

  5. Heat gets a scale

    Wilbur Scoville devises a test for pungency, giving us Scoville Heat Units.

  6. An expanding family

    Seed keepers preserve landraces while growers breed new colors and record-breaking heat.

The cook's notes

Six ways to coax out flavor.

I

Fresh

Slice into salsas, salads, relishes, and ceviche for brightness and crunch.

II

Fire-roasted

Blistering softens flesh, deepens sweetness, and adds char.

III

Dried & toasted

Drying concentrates fruit; brief toasting wakes aromatic oils.

IV

Smoked

Slow smoke transforms ripe jalapeños into deeply savory chipotles.

V

Fermented

Salt, microbes, and time create tangy mashes with rounded complexity.

VI

Infused

Capsaicin dissolves in oil. Warm gently and strain for a vivid condiment.