Datil
The Datil pepper is a very hot, heirloom chili famous in Northeast Florida for its sweet, fruity, and intensely aromatic flavor. It is the signature pepper behind Datil pepper sauce and a beloved local treasure in St. Augustine.
Datil peppers are small (1–2.5 inches), wrinkled, lantern-shaped pods with thin but juicy walls. They ripen from green to a brilliant golden-orange. The plant is highly productive and the heat is very high (100,000–300,000+ SHU).
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Backstory
The Datil pepper has been grown in St. Augustine, Florida since the mid-1800s by the Minorcan community. It is believed to have Caribbean roots but has been perfected locally over generations. It is now a protected heirloom and the star of the annual Datil Pepper Festival.
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Reach out →Flavor
Sweet and intensely fruity with bright citrus and floral notes. The heat is fierce but the complex sweetness makes it one of the most flavorful hot peppers.
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Sources
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These references are used to verify what we publish — not as the source of the content itself. Seed catalogs, breeder pages, research papers, and cultivar databases let us cross-check every fact before it lands here. Open any card to read the original or dig deeper.
- pepperscale.compepperscale.com/datil-pepper
- chilipeppermadness.comwww.chilipeppermadness.com/chili-pepper-types/hot-chili-pepper-types/datil-peppers
- en.wikipedia.orgen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datil_pepper
- staugustine.comwww.staugustine.com/story/news/local/2023/09/01/datil-pepper-festival-st-augustine-florida/70500000007