Aji dulce pepper plants
Habanero perfume, almost no burn. The name dulce means sweet.
By Debra Austin
Species: Capsicum chinense
Sweet chinense, not a sweet bell
Aji dulce is a Capsicum chinense selected for the habanero smell with the capsaicin mostly bred out. Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and Cuba all cook with a version of it. The pod is lantern-shaped and wrinkled, which is why people bite one expecting a habanero and then look confused.
The plant we list is Aji Dulce Puerto Rican Sweet, 0 to 1,000 SHU. Cachucha is the related sweet chinense with its own page. Do not confuse either of them with a baccatum just because the label says aji.
How hot aji dulce is
Ours is listed at 0 to 1,000 SHU. That is the bottom of the scale, a mild warmth at most. Individual pods on a sweet chinense can surprise you if the line was not stable. Taste a sliver before you blend a sofrito.
Where it goes in the pot
Sofrito, recao dishes, and anything that wants habanero aroma without clearing the table. It does not replace a bell pepper. The wall is thinner and the flavor is floral. Use it where a recipe says aji dulce, ajicito, or sweet habanero.
Growing aji dulce
Same care as a habanero: warmth, a big pot, a long season. The plant does not get milder because you watered it more. Heat, such as it is, was decided when the variety was selected.
The Aji Dulce we grow
Questions people ask
Is aji dulce hot?
The Puerto Rican sweet we grow is listed at 0 to 1,000 SHU. It should taste like a habanero and not burn. Taste a sliver anyway.
Is aji dulce a habanero?
Same species, different selection. The aroma is the habanero's. The heat is not.
Is aji dulce the same as cachucha?
Close. Both are sweet chinenses with a lantern shape. They have their own pages because the names are what people search, and the plants are not identical.
Related types