Habanero peppers are officially the hottest peppers in the world. Hot, but not the hottest on record, habanero peppers are usually in the range of 100,000-350,000 Scoville units. But the naga-diablo chilli, which is rumored to be a habanero, can reach over 1 million units of heat and is officially the world’s hottest pepper. Unripen habaneros are green, but they can ripen to a number of colors: orange, red, white, brown or pink.

The name habanero is thought to have come from Havana, Cuba, and habaneros originated in the Caribbean and nearby South American Amazon region. When given its Latin name of “capsicum chinense” the habanero was mistakenly thought to have originated in china. Because of their high heat, habanero peppers are a very popular ingredient in hot sauce. Today the lantern shaped orange habanero chili is grown commercially in Mexico.

As tropical plants, they prefer warm nights and lots of humidity. Drought and other types of stress cause the plants to produce hotter peppers. Habanero are slow growers too; the plants take more than 100 days to produce mature pods. This long growing period combined with the stress induced heat level means the heat level of any individual habanero pepper is very unpredictable. With all that heat, it can be hard to discern any other flavors in a habanero chili, but those who can, refer to them as “fruity”, “floral” or “smokey”.