Red Pepper: Quick Facts

• Christopher Columbus found red peppers when he tasted what he thought were hot berries in the Caribbean.3
• Columbus thought he was in India, where black pepper was found, so he called the berries “red pepper.”3
• Before Columbus, however, native people in the Americas had been enjoying the peppers for approximately 7,000 years.3
• Peppers are from the genus “capsicum,” from the Greek word kapto which means “to bite.”3
• The types of peppers range from the sweet green pepper to the habeñero and lethal Scotch bonnet.3