Cachucha pepper plants

Habanero shape, mostly without the habanero. One of the three we grow does have some heat.

By Debra Austin

Species: Capsicum chinense

The sweet one that looks guilty

Cachucha is a Caribbean name for a sweet Capsicum chinense. Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the islands around them cook with it. The pod is lantern-shaped, which is why people bite one expecting a habanero and get perfume instead. The close cousin in the seed trade is aji dulce. Same idea, overlapping names.

Two of ours sit in that mild band. Fairytale Cachucha is listed at 500 to 1,000 SHU. Aji Cachucha Purple Splotched is listed at 0 to 1,000. Both are chinense.

Darkness is the exception

Darkness Cachucha is listed at 1,000 to 10,000 SHU. That is not a sweet pepper. It is still a cachucha by name and species, and it is the one to read twice before you assume the whole page is mild. The high end of that range is where a mild pepper stops being a garnish.

Aji Cachucha Purple Splotched also shows up on the aji page, because the title says aji. It is a chinense, not a baccatum. The species is printed on the plant's own page.

How hot the cachuchas we grow are

Fairytale Cachucha is listed at 500 to 1,000 SHU. Aji Cachucha Purple Splotched is 0 to 1,000. Darkness Cachucha is the exception, listed at 1,000 to 10,000. The shape looks like a habanero. The first two do not taste like one in the throat.

Growing them

Chinense rules apply. Warmth, patience, a 5 gallon pot if you want a real plant. They are not slower because they are mild. They are slower because of the species.

Taste the first ripe pod of any cachucha before you cook a pile of them. The shape will lie to you, and Darkness will back the shape up.

aji dulce on WikiPepper

The Cachucha we grow

Questions people ask

Are cachuchas hot?

Fairytale Cachucha is listed at 500 to 1,000 SHU and Aji Cachucha Purple Splotched at 0 to 1,000. Darkness Cachucha is listed at 1,000 to 10,000 SHU.

Is a cachucha the same as aji dulce?

They are the same idea: a sweet Capsicum chinense with a habanero shape. The names come from different islands and they get used loosely.

What species are the ones you grow?

Capsicum chinense. All three.