Help telling what type of Hot Peppers these are? Pic included.?

Question

This is northern Italy and hot peppers aren't too popular, the shop sells these as ornamental plants as they reckon they are too hot to eat.

Can anyone name them for me? They are fairly hot, better than nothing till I get my hands on some habanero seeds. The plants are in tiny pots, you can see three plants here

http://www.mangiaredoc.com/unknownpep.jpg

they can be either yellow, orange or red. Thanks for any help.

Answer 1

From the shape of the pepper and leaves, your size description and the colors, it sure looks and sounds like a Hawaiian Chili Pepper. They are hot, and used for one of our favorite condiments..Chili Pepper Water.  Give it a try!  You mean they actually have chili pepper laws in Italy?  

Go to any diner, Hawaiian food restaurant, or plate lunch stand in Hawaii, and along with the ketchup, mustard, shoyu (soy sauce), and Worcestershire sauce you'll also find chili pepper water. Not "sauce," "water." You'll recognize it by it's pinkish-orange-y hue, and the whole chilis and sliced garlic suspended in it.

Like a distant island cousin of Crystal or Tabasco sauce, chili pepper water is a fiery brine used in Hawaii to add a spicy kick to rice, eggs, spaghetti, fried foods, Bloody Marys—just about anything. In fact, this weekend I made some beef stew and rice for dinner, and it was crying out for a splash or three of chili pepper water to go with it.

You can make chili pepper water a lot easier than you can make your own Tabasco or Sriracha sauce,  and I think it's equally delicious. In Hawaii chili pepper water is made with plump, wrinkly, Hawaiian chili peppers. The closest approximation for those outside of the islands would be small, red Thai chilies or any Asian red chili pepper. (Don't use jalapeños or serranos.).

Hawaiian Chili Pepper Water

Once made, let sit over night to develop flavors.  Keep refrigerated.

8-10 Hawaiian red chili peppers

2     teaspoons white vinegar

2   garlic clove, sliced

2     quarter-sized slices fresh ginger, bruised (optional)

1-2     teaspoons sea or kosher salt

2     cups hot water (not boiling)

Place all ingredients into a slightly larger than pint-sized glass jar or bottle. Pour hot water over. Cap when cooled and store in refrigerator.

Use as you would any hot sauce.

A photo of Hawaiian Chili Peppers

http://www.chileplants.com/search.asp?Pr...

http://images.search.yahoo.com/images/vi...

Answer 2

I'm on "David H's" team on this one, in that I also believe these to be some sort of ornamental thai peppers.  I used to have a plant living in my "chili" themed kitchen that looked exactly like this.

The thai peppers that I grow in the garden go from light green, to a bit greener, and then turn red.  They are fire hot, and super delicious in just about anything, so long as you are a pepper freak and love heat (they even rock raw in a salad, vinegar cucumbers, zucchini, pickled with veggies, eggs, etc., or even plain ~ YUMMY!  These peppers very much resemble them ~ it's all in the color.

As for shipping Habanero seeds ... all I can tell you is that even here in the U.S. there are states that do not allow certain seeds/plants to be shipped into other states (my state prohibits several).  I will confess that I've broken a law or two here, but not by shipping ... they can be legally sent to where my family lives, and we pick them up (via vehicle) when we visit annually.

Beautiful plant by the way, and I hope to see you find an exact answer ;)

Answer 3

Those are indeed ornamental peppers. They look like a variety of ornamental thai pepper but I can not tell for sure because of the size and nothing to compare a size to or a ruler which would be more helpful. Im not sure you can import habanero pepper seed or plants to Italy but the link below is where i get my seed and plants from.