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Where Chile Peppers Come From
Every chile pepper traces back to the Americas. Once traders carried them across the oceans in the 1500s, cooks around the world grew and bred their own, and today there are thousands of regional varieties.
We try to carry as many of them as we can. Tap a dot to see where each pepper comes from.
Pick a pepper
Tap a dot on the map, or choose from the list.
Carolina Reaper
Rock Hill, South Carolina
Ed Currie bred the Carolina Reaper in Rock Hill, and Guinness named it the world's hottest pepper in 2013.
Shop All Carolina Reaper Products →Taste it in
Bhutlah
Wisconsin, USA
A cross of the ghost pepper and the 7 Pot Douglah, credited to Wisconsin grower Chad Soleski.
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Chiltepin
Sonora, Mexico
A tiny wild chile of the Sonoran Desert, still picked mostly from wild plants. It is the wild form of the species behind jalapeños, cayenne and most other chiles.
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Habanero
Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico
The Yucatán Peninsula is the habanero's best-known home and Mexico's biggest habanero region, though the species first came from the Amazon.
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Caribbean Red habanero
The Caribbean
A red habanero named for the Caribbean islands, where habaneros have been grown for centuries.
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Aji charapita
Loreto, Peruvian Amazon
A pea-sized chile native to the Peruvian Amazon, around Iquitos.
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Rocoto
Andes of Peru and Bolivia
One of the oldest farmed chiles, grown in the Andes since before the Inca, and known for its black seeds and fuzzy leaves.
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Naga Viper
Cumbria, England
Chili farmer Gerald Fowler bred it in Cark, Cumbria, by crossing three superhot peppers.
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Dragon's Breath
Nottinghamshire, England
Developed by Nottinghamshire chili farmer Neal Price, then made famous in 2017 by Welsh grower Mike Smith.
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Calabrian chile
Calabria, Italy
Southern Italy's peperoncino, grown in Calabria since chiles crossed the Atlantic in the 1500s.
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Fatalii
Central Africa
A citrusy cousin of the habanero that developed in Central Africa from chiles brought over from the Americas.
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Peri peri
Mozambique
Africa's bird's eye chile. Its name comes from southern Mozambique, the home of piri-piri cooking.
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Aleppo pepper
Aleppo, Syria
Named for the Syrian city and long grown around it. Since the war, most Aleppo pepper is grown just over the border in Turkey.
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Kashmiri chile
Kashmir Valley
A mild, deep red chile named for the Kashmir Valley, prized more for its color than its heat.
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Black pepper
Malabar Coast, India
Not a chile at all, and the one pepper here that did not come from the Americas. Peppercorns are native to India's Malabar Coast, the heart of the old spice trade.
Taste it in
Ghost pepper
Northeast India
The bhut jolokia, grown in Assam, Nagaland and Manipur. In 2007 it became the first pepper measured past one million Scoville units.
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Thai bird's eye chile
Thailand
A staple of Thai cooking since chiles arrived from the Americas in the 1500s and 1600s.
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Sichuan peppercorn
Sichuan, China
Not a chile either: the dried husk of a prickly ash berry, native to China and prized in Sichuan for its tingle.
Taste it in
Gochugaru
South Korea
Korea's sun-dried red pepper flakes, the backbone of kimchi. Chiles reached Korea around 1600.
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