| Tabasco pepper | |
|---|---|
 Tabasco peppers (ripe and unripe) | |
| Genus | Capsicum |
| Species | Capsicum frutescens |
| Cultivar | 'Tabasco' |
| Heat |  Hot |
| Scoville scale | 30,000–50,000 SHU |
The tabasco pepper is a variety of the chili pepper species Capsicum frutescens originating in Mexico. It is best known through its use in Tabasco sauce, followed by peppered vinegar.[1]
Like all C. frutescens cultivars, the tabasco plant has a typical bushy growth, which commercial cultivation makes stronger by trimming the plants. The tapered fruits, around 4 cm long, are initially pale yellowish-green and turn yellow and orange before ripening to bright red. Tabascos rate from 30,000 to 50,000[2] on the Scoville scale.[3] Tabasco fruits, like all other members of the C. frutescens species, remain erect when mature, rather than hanging down from their stems.
A large part of the tabasco pepper stock fell victim to the tobacco mosaic virus in the 1960s; the first resistant variety (Greenleaf tabasco) was not cultivated until around 1970.[4]
- ^ Tabasco Sauce History and Lore thespruceeats.com. Retrieved 31 August 2021
- ^ "HOT PEPPER HEAT SCALE". Bonnie Plants. Retrieved 17 November 2022.
- ^ McGee, Harold (2004). On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen. by Simon and Schuster. p. 421. ISBN 0-684-80001-2.
- ^ Andrews, Jean (1998). The Pepper Lady's Pocket Pepper Primer. University of Texas Press. p. 151. ISBN 0-292-70483-6.