Jalapeños

Most people are familiar with this pepper and have seen in on their favorite restaurant’s menu or around the local grocery store. But how much do you really know?

The jalapeño originated in Mexico and in actually named after the capital city of Veracruz, Xalapa (or Jalapa). “Jalapeño” in Spanish means “from Xalapa” and gives homage to the location where the pepper was traditionally farmed and grown.

Most jalapeños you encounter in the United States are about 2-4 inches in length and a bright green coloring. These peppers can actually turn red, orange, or yellow if you let them continue maturing and don’t pick them when they are green however!

A common misconception is that this is a “hot” pepper. As described in our post about the Scoville scale, we saw how jalapeños top out around 8,000 units and yet the hottest peppers in the world check in at over 1,000,000 units!