Scotch bonnet pepper plants

Squat, fruity, and hot. Jamaica's pepper, and not a habanero with a different sticker.

By Debra Austin

Species: Capsicum chinense

The bonnet, not the lantern

A scotch bonnet is a Capsicum chinense. So is a habanero. The heat band is the same neighborhood, 100,000 to 350,000 SHU on both plants we grow. The pod is the difference. A habanero is a lantern. A bonnet folds in on itself, squat, with a shoulder that looks like a tam.

Flavor is the other split. A bonnet is fruitier and rounder. A habanero is sharper and more floral. Jamaica cooks with bonnets. The Yucatan cooks with habaneros. Seed gets mixed up constantly, which is a separate problem.

The mushroom problem

A lot of seed and a lot of store plants sold as scotch bonnet grow out as Jamaican mushroom. That is a different pepper. The leaf, the calyx, and the way the pods set give it away before the fruit colors. We wrote that up because we got caught by it ourselves, back when we were buying plants to grow from.

We grow two bonnets: a yellow one and a chocolate one. Both are listed at 100,000 to 350,000 SHU. Color is not a heat ranking. Chocolate is not automatically hotter.

How hot a scotch bonnet is

Both the yellow and the chocolate are listed at 100,000 to 350,000 SHU. That is the same band as the habaneros we grow. The difference is the pod and the fruit, not a milder number.

Growing them

This is a chinense. Germination is slower, the plant wants real warmth, and the first ripe pod takes its time. Give it a 5 gallon pot at least. A windowsill that suits a jalapeno will stall a bonnet.

The pods are thin-walled and juicy. Handle ripe fruit as if it were a habanero, because the burn is in that class. Gloves are the whole safety talk.

how a bonnet differs from a Jamaican mushroom

scotch bonnet on WikiPepper

The Scotch Bonnet we grow

Questions people ask

How hot are the scotch bonnets you sell?

Yellow Scotch Bonnet and Chocolate Scotch Bonnet are both listed at 100,000 to 350,000 SHU.

Is a scotch bonnet the same as a habanero?

Same species, Capsicum chinense, and a similar heat band. The bonnet pod is squatter and the flavor is fruitier. The habanero is sharper and more floral.

What species are they?

Capsicum chinense.