The Dedo de Moça pepper is a popular Brazilian variety of Capsicum baccatum, featuring slender finger-like pods with a fruity and smoky flavor. It originates from southern and southeastern Brazil and is a staple in local cuisine with a heat level of 10,000 to 15,000 Scoville units.
The Dedo de Moça, translating to 'lady's finger' in Portuguese, is an elongated chili pepper that resembles a slender finger, typically measuring 3 inches long and 0.5 inches wide. The pods hang pendant from the plant and mature from green through orange to a vibrant red. With medium-thick flesh and smooth skin, they offer a versatile texture ideal for fresh use or drying. The flavor profile begins with sweet and fruity notes accompanied by subtle smokiness, transitioning into a peppery taste that builds to a stingy, lingering heat without excessive bitterness. This makes it perfect for enhancing Brazilian dishes such as feijoada, moqueca, rice, beans, meats, salads, and sauces. When dried and ground, it becomes pimenta-calabresa, a common condiment in southern Brazil. The plants are tall and somewhat gangly, reaching up to 5 feet in height, and are known for high yields after about 90 days of growth in full sun with fertile, well-drained soil. It belongs to the Capsicum baccatum species and has been cultivated traditionally in Brazil for generations.
No photos of Dedo de Moça Pepper here yet. Got one? Share it with us.
A traditional Brazilian cultivar named for its resemblance to a woman's finger ('dedo de moça'). It has been widely grown and used in southern and southeastern Brazil for centuries, forming a key part of the country's culinary heritage alongside other baccatum varieties.
Promote a product tied to Dedo de Moça Pepper? This slot is open.
Reach out →Sweet and fruity with smoky undertones, developing into a peppery finish with lingering stingy heat.
Huge shout-out to the breeders, growers, researchers, and seed savers linked below — their independent work is what lets us fact-check our own. Go visit them.
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.
