Birds Eye Baby Chilli

The Bird's Eye Baby, a tiny firecracker with a massive personality and a well-travelled passport! While all chilli peppers trace their ancestry back to the Americas, this particular variety, a member of the Capsicum annuum species, truly became a global superstar after being carried across the oceans by Portuguese and Spanish traders centuries ago. It found a welcoming second home in the warm climates of Southeast Asia and Africa, where it was enthusiastically adopted into local cuisines and given regional names like Thai Chilli and Piri-Piri. The "Bird's Eye" moniker is a playful nod to its primary method of propagation in the wild; birds, who are immune to the pepper's heat, feast on the small, colourful pods and disperse the seeds far and wide. The "Baby" descriptor celebrates its particularly compact and ornamental nature, a trait that makes it a modern favourite among gardeners.

The Bird's Eye Baby plant is a prolific and stunningly beautiful producer. It grows into a compact, bushy plant, typically reaching a height of only 12-24 inches (about 30-60 cm), making it perfectly suited for container gardening, sunny windowsills, and even as a chilli "bonsai". The plant features attractive, dense green foliage and produces an abundance of small, star-shaped white flowers. Each plant can become smothered in hundreds of small, slender pods, about 1-2 inches long, that stand upright like tiny, colourful flames. As they mature, the pods put on a spectacular display, transitioning from creamy yellow or deep purple through vibrant orange and finally to a brilliant scarlet red, often with all colours present on the plant at once, creating a living rainbow in a pot.

The Bird's Eye Baby delivers a fantastic culinary experience. Unlike many ornamental peppers that sacrifice flavour for appearance, this variety boasts a genuinely delicious taste alongside its fiery kick. When picked green, the pods have a crisp texture and a bright, somewhat "grassy" flavour with an instant spiciness. As they ripen to red, the flavour deepens, becoming fruitier and slightly sweeter, with a heat that builds more slowly but has a fuller, more intense character. Clocking in at a respectable 50,000-100,000 on the Scoville Heat Unit (SHU) scale, it packs a punch comparable to a Cayenne or Thai pepper—many times hotter than a jalapeño but without the overwhelming intensity of a habanero. These peppers are a cornerstone of Southeast Asian cooking and are perfect for adding clean, vibrant heat to stir-fries, soups, and curries. For a simple and authentic taste of Thailand, try making a classic Nam Prik Pla: thinly slice a few Bird's Eye Baby chilies and a clove of garlic, then combine them in a small bowl with 4 tablespoons of fish sauce, 2 tablespoons of fresh lime juice, and a teaspoon of sugar, stirring until the sugar dissolves. This zesty, spicy, and savoury condiment is drizzled over everything from grilled meats to fried rice, perfectly showcasing the pepper's delightful fire.

All plants are grown on our farm in Norfolk, UK and are grown in an open pollinated area.