habanero

The habanero is named after the Cuban city of La Habana, known in English as Havana, because it used to feature heavily in trading there. (Despite the name, habaneros and other spicy-hot ingredients are rarely used in traditional Cuban cooking.){{cite web |url=https://cubanews.de/en/cuba-and-food-an-intense-history/ |title=Cuba and Food – An Intense History |date=July 2020 |access-date=March 7, 2021}}{{cite web |url=https://medium.com/panel-frame/cuban-food-isnt-spicy-bf7a671b4f11 |title=Cuban Food Isn't Spicy |date=17 June 2016 |access-date=March 7, 2021}} In English, it is sometimes incorrectly spelled habañero and pronounced {{IPAc-en|ˌ|(|h|)|ɑː|b|ə|ˈ|n|j|ɛər|oʊ}}, the tilde being added as a hyperforeignism patterned after jalapeño.{{cite web|url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/habanero |title=Habanero |publisher=Merriam-Webster |access-date=2013-10-26}}

File:ExpoIndigenous2015 065.JPG cooperative in Peto Municipality, Yucatán]]

File:Habanero cut in half on a blue plate.jpg

The habanero chili comes from the Amazon, from which it was spread, reaching Mexico.{{cite web|url=http://www.conacyt.mx/comunicacion/revista/195/Articulos/Chilehabanero/Habanero01.html#a |title=El chile habanero de Yucatán. Origen y dispersión prehispánica del chile habanero |work=Ciencia y Desarrollo |date=May 2006 |access-date=2015-01-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120212225214/http://www.conacyt.mx/comunicacion/revista/195/Articulos/Chilehabanero/Habanero01.html#a |archive-date=February 12, 2012 }} Today, the largest producer of the habanero pepper is the Yucatán Peninsula, in Mexico.{{cite web |url=http://www.melindas.com/press/press1.html |title=Profile of the Habanero Pepper |work=Whole Chile Pepper Magazine |date=July 1989 |access-date=2013-04-14 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120906065521/http://www.melindas.com/press/press1.html |archive-date=2012-09-06 }} Habaneros are an integral part of Yucatecan food, accompanying most dishes, either in natural form or purée or salsa.{{cite web|title=Habanero|url=https://worldcrops.org/crops/habanero|publisher=WorldCrops.org|access-date=24 March 2017}} Other modern producers include Belize, Panama, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, and parts of the United States, including Texas, Idaho, and California.{{Citation needed|date=July 2021}}

The habanero chili was disseminated by Spanish colonists to other areas of the world, to the point that 18th-century taxonomists mistook China for its place of origin and called it Capsicum chinense ("the Chinese pepper").{{cite journal|url=http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/proceedings1996/V3-479.html |last=Bosland |first=P.W. |year=1996 |title=Capsicums: Innovative Uses of an Ancient Crop |pages=479–487 |editor=J. Janick |journal=Progress in New Crops |publisher=ASHS Press |location=Arlington, Virginia |access-date=2013-04-14}}{{cite web|url=http://scovillescaleforpeppers.com/history-chile-pepper/ |author=Bosland, P.W.|title=The History of the Chile Pepper |publisher=Brooklyn Botanic Garden |access-date=2014-12-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140524022915/http://scovillescaleforpeppers.com/history-chile-pepper/ |archive-date=May 24, 2014 }}{{cite book |last=Eshbaugh |first=W. Hardy |year=1993 |chapter=Peppers: History and Exploitation of a Serendipitous New Crop Discovery |pages=132–139 |editor-first=Jules |editor-last=Janick |editor-first2=James E. |editor-last2=Simon |title=New Crops |location=New York |publisher=Wiley |isbn=978-0-471-59374-4 |chapter-url=https://hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/proceedings1993/v2-132.html |via=purdue.edu }}

The Scotch bonnet is often compared to the habanero, since they are two varieties of the same species, but they have different pod types. Both the Scotch bonnet and the habanero have thin, waxy flesh. They have a similar heat level and flavor. Both varieties average around the same level of pungency, but the actual degree varies greatly from one fruit to another according to genetics, growing methods, climate, and plant stress.{{Citation needed|date=July 2021}}

In 1999, the habanero was listed by Guinness World Records as the world's hottest chili{{cn|date=October 2023}}, but it has since been displaced by other peppers. The heat of the habanero does not immediately take effect, but sets in over a period of a few minutes and lasts up to an hour in the mouth. The heat can sometimes be felt in the esophagus some hours after consumption. The Trinidad moruga scorpion has since been identified as a native Capsicum chinense subspecies even hotter than the habanero. Breeders constantly crossbreed subspecies to attempt to create cultivars that will break the record on the Scoville scale. One example is the Carolina Reaper, supposedly a cross between a bhut jolokia pepper with a particularly pungent red habanero.{{Citation needed|date=July 2021}}

Habaneros thrive in hot weather. Like all peppers, the habanero does well in an area with good morning sun and in soil with a pH level around 5 to 6 (slightly acidic). Habaneros which are watered daily produce more vegetative growth but the same number of fruit, with lower concentrations of capsaicin, as compared to plants which are watered only when dry (every seven days).{{cite journal|last1=Ruiz-Lau|first1=Nancy|last2=Medina-Lara|first2=Fátima|last3=Minero-García|first3=Yereni|last4=Zamudio-Moreno|first4=Enid|last5=Guzmán-Antonio|first5=Adolfo|last6=Echevarría-Machado|first6=Ileana|last7=Martínez-Estévez|first7=Manuel|title=Water Deficit Affects the Accumulation of Capsaicinoids in Fruits of Capsicum chinense Jacq.|url=https://journals.ashs.org/hortsci/view/journals/hortsci/46/3/article-p487.xml|journal=HortScience|access-date=17 August 2017|pages=487–492|language=en|date=1 March 2011|volume=46|issue=3|doi=10.21273/HORTSCI.46.3.487|doi-access=free}} Overly moist soil and roots will produce bitter-tasting peppers. Daily watering during flowering and early setting of fruit helps prevent flower and immature fruit from dropping, but flower dropping rates often reach 90% even in ideal conditions.

The habanero is a perennial flowering plant, meaning that with proper care and growing conditions, it can produce flowers (and thus fruit) for many years. Habanero bushes are good candidates for a container garden. In temperate climates, though, it is treated as an annual, dying each winter and being replaced the next spring. In tropical and subtropical regions, the habanero, like other chiles, will produce year round. As long as conditions are favorable, the plant will set fruit continuously.{{Citation needed|date=July 2022}}

File:Chocolate habanero peppers.jpg

Several growers have attempted to selectively breed habanero plants to produce hotter, heavier, and larger peppers. Most habaneros rate between 200,000 and 300,000 on the Scoville scale. In 2004, researchers in Texas created a mild version of the habanero, but retained the traditional aroma and flavor. The milder version was obtained by crossing the Yucatán habanero pepper with a heatless habanero from Bolivia over several generations.{{cite web |last=Santa Ana |first=Rod III |url=https://agrilifetoday.tamu.edu/2004/08/12/texas-plant-breeder-develops-mild-habanero-pepper/ |title=Texas Plant Breeder Develops Mild Habanero Pepper |work=AgNews |date=12 August 2004 |access-date=18 March 2020 }} Breeder Michael Mazourek used a mutation discovered by the Chile Pepper Institute to create a heatless version labeled the 'Habanada' bred in 2007 and released in 2014.{{cite web|last1=Page-Mann|first1=Petra|title=Habanada: The Unmasked Habanero|url=http://smallfarms.cornell.edu/2015/04/06/habanada/|website=Cornell Small Farms Program|access-date=9 March 2018|date=6 April 2015}}{{cite news|last1=Danovich|first1=Tove|title=This Heatless Habanero Packs All Of The Flavor With None Of The Burn|url=https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/02/13/514106139/this-heatless-habanero-packs-all-of-the-flavor-with-none-of-the-burn|access-date=9 March 2018|work=NPR.org|agency=NPR|date=12 Feb 2017|language=en}}

Black habanero is an alternative name often used to describe the dark brown variety of habanero chilis, which are slightly smaller and more spherical. Some seeds have been found which are thought to be over 7,000 years old. The black habanero has an exotic and unusual taste, and is hotter than a regular habanero with a rating between 425,000 and 577,000 Scoville units.{{Cite web|url=https://www.pepperscale.com/chocolate-habanero/|title=Chocolate Habanero: Smoky Sweet Heat|date=18 January 2014}} Small slivers used in cooking can have a dramatic effect on the overall dish. Black habaneros take considerably longer to grow than other habanero chili varieties.

Caribbean Red, a cultivar within the habanero family, has a citrusy and slightly smoky flavor, with a Scoville rating ranging from 300,000 to 445,000 Scoville units.{{cite web|title=Caribbean Red Habanero: Tropical Thunder|url=https://www.pepperscale.com/caribbean-red-habanero/|website=PepperScale|access-date=2 July 2017|date=6 May 2016}}

File:Image-bee71dcf576c102431b196f41ffb6b0827489cea82e9636921ee268f47925e22-V.jpg|Red habanero chiles growing on the plant

File:HabaneroSeedling.JPG|Habanero seedling

File:Habanero plant.jpg|Habanero plant with fruits

File:Habanero chile - flower with fruit (aka).jpg|Habanero plant with fruit and flower

File:Habanero orange.JPG|Orange habanero

File:Habenero roast.jpg|Orange habaneros

File:Habanero pepers.jpg|Red habaneros

File:Habanero chilies from Stockmann.jpg|Red habaneros on a plate, bought from a food store

File:Marie Sharp's Cannot see preview 13.jpg|Belizean red habaneros being prepared for washing, sorting and grinding

File:Habaneros drying for further preservation.jpg|Habaneros sun-drying

• Capsicum (pepper family)
• Jalapeño
• Hottest chili pepper
• Scotch bonnet

{{Reflist}}

{{Commons category multi | Capsicum chinense | Habanero}}

• Clarke, Dale C. (2003–2004). [http://gozonian.org/ajichombo/index.shtml Aji Chombo peppers]. Photographic account of chilies grown in Fairfax, Virginia, from seeds imported from Panama.

{{Capsicum Cultivars}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Habanero Chili}}

Category:Capsicum cultivars

Category:Chili peppers

Category:Belizean cuisine

Category:Mexican cuisine

Category:New Mexican cuisine

Category:Texan cuisine

Category:Spicy foods

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