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 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.

Naming

Even though the word "tabasco" is the name of a Mexican state, this variety of pepper was first grown in large quantities in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The initial letter of "tabasco" is rendered in lowercase when referring to the botanical variety, but is capitalized when used as a brand name to refer to the pepper's namesake sauce product, Tabasco sauce.

Cultivation

Until recently, all of the peppers used to make Tabasco sauce were grown on Avery Island, Louisiana. While a small portion of the crop is still grown on the island, the bulk of the crop is now grown in Central and South America, where the weather and the availability of more farmland allow a more predictable and larger year-round supply of peppers. This also helps to ensure the supply of peppers should something happen to the crop at a particular location. All of the seeds are still grown on Avery Island.

Rank on the Scoville Scale

Tabasco peppers are ranked 30,000–50,000 on the Scoville scale.

Translation of "Tabasco pepper"

German: Tabasco (Pflanze), Spanish: Capsicum frutescens var. tabasco, Hungarian: Tabasco paprika, Dutch: Tabasco (plant), Romanian: Tabasco (plantă), Finnish: Tabasco-chili, Tongan: Polo, Turkish: Tabasco (bitki), Chinese: 朝天椒.