Aji Colorado Orange Chilli
A fruity, glowing-orange Peruvian aji with a friendly medium heat
A rare and beautiful Peruvian aji - a tall, generous bush hung with glowing orange pods, with a fresh, fruity, bean-like flavour and a friendly medium heat. The kind of chilli you cook with for flavour, not bragging rights.
About this variety
An Andean aji in its orange form, and a good introduction to a branch of the pepper family British gardeners rarely meet. The ajis are the cooking chillies of Peru and Bolivia, prized there since long before the Incas, and what marks them out is that they lead with flavour. This one is fresh and fruity with an odd, appealing bean-like note underneath, on a heat of 20,000 to 30,000 Scoville units. That is hot cayenne territory, warm and lively, nowhere near the superhots.
The pods are conical and glowing orange, hung in quantity off a vigorous bush. Look at the flowers and you will find small greenish or straw-coloured spots on the petals, which is the botanical signature of a true baccatum and a satisfying thing to spot.
The one honest warning is size. Baccatums grow tall and get heavy with fruit, and this one will want staking or a cane by August or the branches will go over. Give it room, a greenhouse or a warm sheltered wall, and a long season. It asks far less of you than the superhots do, and a single plant keeps a kitchen supplied through autumn.
Plant alongside
Aji Colorado Orange Chilli pairs beautifully with these kitchen garden companions
