Are you a fan of spicy food? Do you like adding a bitter flavor to the food that you prepare? Are you that type of person who cannot do without some burning sensation inside their mouth when they eat?

If your answer to these questions is a yes, you are probably a fan of chili peppers, which were domesticated in South America approximately 6000 years ago. This amazing fruit is used to give “ heat “ to countless sorts of food and drink, whether it is a soup prepared at home or a delicious fillet served in a posh restaurant or special Aztec hot chocolate you might want to prepare for yourself for a change.

The genus of chili pepper plants is capsicum. The root of this word is unknown, but it could have been derived from Latin word capsa, meaning a box. This possibility exists because bell peppers look like a box and harbor innumerable seeds inside themselves. There are dozens of capsicum varieties, though only five of them are domesticated. Capsicum Annuum, the best-known and most-consumed capsicum variety, was first cultivated in early Mesoamerica.

The word chili is derived from the word chilli in Classical Nahuatl, the name for the plant in that language. Surprisingly, the word pepper is derived from Sanskrit word pippali, meaning long pepper. In Turkish, which is my native tongue, chilis are called biber, which is derived from Greek pipéri, which in turn is also derived from Sanskrit pippali.

Long pepper is a plant having originated in Southeast Asia and it is frequently mistaken for black pepper. Although both plants originate from the same region, long pepper has a taste with more heat and covert sweetness with traces of the tastes of spices such as ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg. Chilis were called pepper when they became popular in Great Britain because of their pungent taste despite the fact that they originated in South America . As you already may have understood, chili peppers, on one hand, and long pepper and black pepper, on the other hand, are completely different plants considering where they originated and how their genetic make-ups are constituted . It is their pungency that made these plants come together under the umbrella of the same name.

Long Pepper

Black Pepper

Birds may have played a great role in the spread of chili peppers from their original habitats to Mexico and Southern USA. Unlike humans, birds do not possess receptors for capsaicin, the substance that gives chili peppers their pungent taste. They eat the flesh and seeds of the fruit and get rid of the seeds in their bodies through excrement. This wholly eases the spread of chili seeds.

This wonderful fruit hides much more in its history and we have taken a brief look into its origins in this post. As far as I am concerned, chilis will always be inside my menu.