Birds Eye Baby Chilli

A true miniature. The plant makes a small dense bush covered in tiny leaves, neat enough that people grow it as chilli bonsai and small enough to live in a modest pot on a kitchen windowsill. For its size it crops absurdly hard, studding itself with dozens of little upright pods.

The pods are fat-based cones only a couple of centimetres long, standing up above the foliage rather than dangling, and they ripen from glossy green through a deep purplish-brown to a vivid red. A plant in full swing carries all three at once, which is most of the reason to grow it. The heat is the real bird's eye article, 50,000 to 100,000 Scoville units, clean and sharp, and the pods are small enough to dry in a couple of days.

It is a Capsicum annuum, the easygoing branch of the family, so it germinates readily and comes to fruit far quicker than the superhots. That makes it one of the best first chillies there is. Worth knowing this is the compact Thai-style bird's eye and a different plant from our African Bird's Eye, which is a taller frutescens piri piri type. Wash your hands after cutting the fruit and keep it away from your eyes.