Pimenta de Cheiro
Also known as pimenta-de-cheiro · De Cheiro · pimenta de cheiro · cheiro pepper · Brazilian aromatic pepper
Pimenta de Cheiro is a Capsicum chinense landrace from Amazon Basin, Brazil. Capsi’s sourced range is 0 SHU (Lab-verified). Flavor is aromatic, floral, fruity, sweet. Used for Used fresh, usually green, to perfume fish and seafood in northern Brazil, Essential in empadão goiano and savory pamonha in the Center-West, Stands in for bell pepper in rice, salads, soups, meats, pies, and pizza nationwide, Add late and sparingly so the aroma does not overwhelm, Culinary analog of Caribbean ají dulce / ají gustoso in sofrito. Heat is a range, not a single marketing number.
A fragrant Amazonian Capsicum chinense landrace, pimenta-de-cheiro is Brazil’s everyday aromatic pepper. Floral and fruity, usually mild, it is used fresh to perfume fish, rice, and Center-West dishes rather than to add heat.
Growing
~90 days to maturity
Fruit size
3–6 cm
Flavor & Use
Prized for a strong floral-fruity perfume, tropical fruit and fresh-herb notes, more than for heat. Green fruits are crisper and more aromatic than ripe ones. The scent can dominate a dish if added too generously.
Culinary
About
Pimenta de Cheiro (pimenta-de-cheiro, “scent pepper”) is a Capsicum chinense landrace group. The name is applied to several related peppers that share a strong floral-fruity aroma but differ in shape, ripe color, and heat. The type sold in northern and central-western Brazilian markets is a campanulate, indented fruit about 4–6 cm long with thin glossy walls, few seeds, and a hollow interior. Fruit is picked light green for the kitchen; ripe colors run yellow, orange, and red, with salmon, milky-yellow, and rare dark types also recorded. The common culinary fruit is mild, so the pepper adds perfume without making a dish fiery. Across the wider landrace, genotypes range from sweet to very hot; hotter Amazonian cousins such as murupi are sometimes lumped under the same folk name. Flavor is sweet, tropical-fruity, and floral. Green fruit is crunchier and more aromatic than ripe fruit. Cooks in Pará and Amazonas fold it into fish and seafood; in Goiás it is essential in empadão goiano and savory pamonha. Nationwide it stands in for bell pepper in rice, salads, soups, pizza, and pies. Add it late and sparingly. Plants are compact bushes 60–120 cm tall, tropical and frost-tender, with first harvest around 90 days from sowing.
Backstory
An Amazonian Capsicum chinense landrace domesticated by Indigenous peoples of the basin, pimenta-de-cheiro takes its name from the perfume that fills a kitchen when the fruit is cut. It is the everyday aromatic pepper of northern and central-western Brazil, stirred into fish dishes in the North and into empadão goiano and savory pamonha in the Center-West, and is the closest Brazilian cousin of Caribbean ají dulce. The name covers a morphotype, not a single cultivar: fruit shape, ripe color, and heat all vary, but the shared trait is that pronounced chinense aroma.
Appearance
Growing
Heritage
ExplorePimenta de Cheiro is a traditional landrace.
Sources
FAQ
- How hot is Pimenta de Cheiro?
- Capsi’s sourced range is 0 SHU (Lab-verified). Capsi uses a sourced range and a trust tier, not a single marketing number. How we verify heat: https://web.thecapsi.app/learn/heat-and-capsaicin/how-we-measure-heat
- What does Pimenta de Cheiro taste like?
- Prized for a strong floral-fruity perfume, tropical fruit and fresh-herb notes, more than for heat. Green fruits are crisper and more aromatic than ripe ones. The scent can dominate a dish if added too generously.
- How do I grow Pimenta de Cheiro?
- Pimenta de Cheiro: about 90 days to maturity, tropical climate, full sun, hardiness zones 9-11.
- What can I substitute for Pimenta de Cheiro?
- Ají Dulce, Biquinho Pepper