Tabasco pepper

The tabasco pepper is a variety of chili pepper species Capsicum frutescens. It is best known through its use in Tabasco sauce, followed by peppered vinegar. Like all C. frutescens cultivars, the tabasco plant has a typical bushy growth, which commercial cultivation makes stronger by trimming the plants. The tapered fruits, around 4 cm long, are initially pale yellowish-green and turn yellow and orange before ripening to bright red. Tabascos rate... more

The tabasco pepper is a variety of chili pepper species Capsicum frutescens. It is best known through its use in Tabasco sauce, followed by peppered vinegar. Like all C. frutescens cultivars, the tabasco plant has a typical bushy growth, which commercial cultivation makes stronger by trimming the plants. The tapered fruits, around 4 cm long, are initially pale yellowish-green and turn yellow and orange before ripening to bright red. Tabascos rate from 30,000 to 50,000 on the Scoville scale of heat levels, and are the only variety of chile whose fruits are "juicy"; i.e., they are not dry on the inside. Unlike most chiles, tabasco fruits grow up, rather than hanging down from their stems. A large part of the tabasco pepper stock fell victim to the tobacco mosaic virus in the 1960s: the first resistant variety (Greenleaf tabasco) was not cultivated until around 1970. Even though the word "tabasco" is the name of a Mexican state, this variety of pepper was first grown in large quantities... less