Aji Norteno Chilli
The "Northern Aji" with a crisp, green-apple flavour
A rare Peruvian aji with a genuinely distinctive crisp green-apple flavour. The "Northern Aji" from Peru's coastal valleys - hugely productive, mild to medium, and unusually well suited to a cool British summer.
About this variety
The northern aji, from the Viru and Lambayeque valleys on the Peruvian coast, where the cooks will tell you the northern ones taste better. What sets it apart is a crisp green-apple flavour, the brightness of a tart eating apple without the bitterness, on a gentle building warmth that lifts a dish rather than takes it over.
The pods are pendant cones of around 8cm that ripen through yellow and orange to a glossy red, so a plant at full tilt carries all three colours at once. They are thin-walled, which means drying is possible but wastes the point of the variety. Eat it fresh. In Peru it goes raw into ceviche, and the apple acidity against fish and lime is the reason to grow it.
For a British garden it has a real advantage. It comes from a cooler part of Peru and it crops reliably in a cool summer where the habaneros and superhots sulk. It will also overwinter in a pot and fruit again the following year. The one warning is size: left alone it will reach two metres. Prune it early and it makes a bushier, more manageable plant without losing the crop.
Plant alongside
Aji Norteno Chilli pairs beautifully with these kitchen garden companions
