Czech Black Pepper

Juicy, sweet, aromatic flesh that runs cherry-red juice when cut, with a rich roasting-pepper flavor and modest heat concentrated in the ribs and seeds. Glossy black pods taste about like a mild jalapeño; fully red ripe pods run hotter.

Czech Black is an early open-pollinated Capsicum annuum heirloom grown for both the kitchen and the ornamental bed. Plants are bushy and productive, typically 45–90 cm tall, with green foliage that often shows purple on stems, flowers, and young shoots. Pendant conical pods about 6–8 cm long start a deep glossy black or purple-black, pass through garnet, and finish a lustrous garnet red. Walls are juicy and medium-thick. Heat is usually quoted at 2,000–5,000 Scoville units—slightly under a typical jalapeño—and lives mainly in the ribs and seeds. About twenty pods per plant is a common yield, and the first fruit is ready roughly 65 days after transplant, with full red color around day 80. The same fruit works fresh, stuffed, pickled, roasted, strung in ristras, or dried into dark chili powder.

Czech Black is an open-pollinated heirloom from the Czech Republic, sold for decades in Europe and North America as both Czech Black and Czechoslovakian Black. Garden writing dates the type to early-1900s Europe; no individual breeder is named. The dark immature pods and occasional purple tint on stems and flowers made it a favorite of edible landscapers as well as cooks who dry the black stage into chili powder.