Chile Pepper Fun Fact - The Pequin Chile Pepper
The tiny yet potent Pequin Pepper!
Pequin peppers, or chili pequin (sometimes spelled “piquin”), are tiny peppers that mature from green to a vibrant red color and offer up some serious heat.
This pepper is also called the “Bird Pepper”, because it is consumed and spread by wild birds. It is a tiny pepper, (pequeno in Spanish means small or tiny) measuring only ½ to ¾ inches long, but don’t be fooled, this little chile packs quite a wallop. The heat continues to grow the longer the peppers stay on the plant.
It is sometimes confused with the Chiltepin pepper, which is a similar but different pepper.
The hot peppers are harvest for commercial use in Mexico, where they are very popular, though they can be found growing locally in the southwestern U.S. and south America.
The pequin pepper measures in with a range of 30,000 SHU to 60,000 Scoville Heat Units on the Scoville Heat Scale. That is quite hot. Compare that to the common jalapeno pepper, which averages 5,000 SHU and you’ll find the hottest chili pequin can reach 12 times hotter. It is closer to the heat of the bird’s eye pepper, or the more commonly known cayenne pepper. Bell peppers, as a reference, have 0 Scoville heat units (no heat).
Some describe the flavor of chili pequin as fruity, citrusy and nutty when consumed fresh. When smoked, the smoked flavor stands out. The greener, less riped peppers are typically used for making salsas and other dishes. As they ripen to red and get hotter, they are usually dried or smoked, then dried, and sold or ground for chili flakes or powders.