Ingredients · Spice

Jalapeño

Capsicum annuum · Solanaceae (nightshade family)

Jalapeño
The chile most North Americans meet first — thick-walled, grassy and bright, with a clean heat. Dried and ground it is a different proposition from the fresh pod: less vegetal, more concentrated. Left on the bush to ripen red and then smoked for six days, the same chile becomes chipotle, which is the more famous half of its life.

What it’s like, and how to use it

The partFruit
KindSpice
CaffeineCaffeine-free
Where it is fromMexico
TasteGrassy and bright with a clean, direct heat; less vegetal dried than fresh

How to use it

Ground into chili powders, rubs and taco seasoning. In cornbread and cheese dishes. It brings heat with a green note that cayenne does not have. Bloom it in fat.

With food

Cheese, especially cheddar. Corn and cornbread. Lime. Tomato. Pork. Avocado. Pineapple. Cilantro.

With spices

Cumin and oregano. Garlic and onion. Chipotle, which is its own smoked self. Paprika.

With tea

Not a tea ingredient.

Its story

Where it comes from

Mexican, named for Xalapa in Veracruz. Our lot is listed at 75,000 heat units, which is high for a jalapeño and suggests a concentrated powder rather than whole dried pods.

What happened

The jalapeño's interesting chapter is what happens when it is not eaten fresh. Because the pod is thick-walled and holds a lot of water, it will not sun-dry the way a thin chile does — it rots first. Smoking solves that, and the practice long predates the Aztecs. Moisture falls from around 88 per cent to about 6 per cent over roughly six days in the smoke, which is why ten pounds of jalapeños make one pound of chipotles, and why chipotle has always cost more.

On the shelf with it

Every product it goes into.

Every ingredient in the shop

Explore

Other ways in

Ingredients Every plant, seed, bark and salt in the shop on one page — what it is, why it is in the blend, and where it comes from. See them all Collections Every shelf in the shop on one page — teas by leaf and flavour, spices by kind and cuisine. Open any shelf to see what is on it. Browse the shelves The Showroom The whole shop on one floor — every tea, spice and blend, filtered by what you are after, with the basket beside you. Open the Showroom Elsewhere Seventeen short trips — a place, a moment, a feeling — each with the teas and spices that get you there. Take a trip