The Blanquíto Pepper Story.

The “Blanquito” pepper

One of our growers brought us a little pepper that had a mysterious origin. The grower, who normally knew what he was selling us, wasn’t quite sure what type of pepper this actually was. He told us that his employee from Central America called it a “Blanquito” pepper, and the name stuck.

The “Blanquito” pepper appears to be a member of the Tabasco/Thai pepper family; and is about twice the size of our native Chili Pequin pepper. The fruit emerges first as a white/yellow pepper (hence the name “Blanquito”), then turns orange, and finally red. You can use the pepper at any color stage. They emerge white hot and just get hotter as they turn red.

This is a very hot, versatile pepper. You can chop three peppers very finely and add them to your veggie omelet to start your day with a kick. Make a batch of tasty, hot salsa. Or how about making “cannons” with them like our employees like to do? If you are a native San Antonian you most likely know what “cannons” are. You combine spicy rolled corn tortilla chips, bean dip, and a whole pepper together and eat it all in one fiery bite.

“Blanquito” peppers are easy to germinate from simply planting a dried out pepper. While not winter hardy, these peppers do over winter nicely in a pot brought inside.