Aji?
 

What does the Aji stand for? I'm sitting here with four different kinds of peppers that all start with Aji.

[QUOTE=Starlight;625756]What does the Aji stand for? I'm sitting here with four different kinds of peppers that all start with Aji.[/QUOTE]

Aji simply means chili pepper in Spanish. Many peppers with Aji in their name are baccatum varieties, which tend to have a fruity flavor with heat levels that range from mild to hot but not super hot.

Cheers !

Mark

Thanks Mark! Learned something new today. : ) Hopefully one of the four will be on the milder side. Sure glad you said not super hot.

[QUOTE=Starlight;625765]Thanks Mark! Learned something new today. : ) Hopefully one of the four will be on the milder side. Sure glad you said not super hot.[/QUOTE]

You're very welcome, hopefully you find a new must grow pepper. If you list the names, maybe some of the pepperheads here can tell you what to expect. :)

Star, I have a lot of varieties starting with Aji. If you would like, I can send them to you. I'm basically past my pepper quota. Although, I know there are some pepper transplants out in the markets whispering to me, "I want to grow in your garden"...:lol:

Things are finally getting kind of quiet tonight on our grandchildrens' spring break, but I'll look tomorrow for the Aji varieties we have if you are interested.

[QUOTE=MendozaMark;625774]You're very welcome, hopefully you find a new must grow pepper. If you list the names, maybe some of the pepperheads here can tell you what to expect. :)[/QUOTE]

These are the ones I have:

Aji Amararillo
Aji Habanero
Aji Lemon
Aji Red Pepper

I figure if the one with Habanero in its name is anything like the regular Habanero that one is gonna be hot.

[QUOTE=AlittleSalt;625802]Star, I have a lot of varieties starting with Aji. If you would like, I can send them to you. I'm basically past my pepper quota. Although, I know there are some pepper transplants out in the markets whispering to me, "I want to grow in your garden"...:lol:

Things are finally getting kind of quiet tonight on our grandchildrens' spring break, but I'll look tomorrow for the Aji varieties we have if you are interested.[/QUOTE]

I appreciate the offer Salt, but I'm like you. I have way more types of seed than I can grow. Soon as I get a chance, I need to do a bit of house cleaning of my pepper seeds. Some I have a bit of seed for and some just a few extra seeds of what I keep for stock. Need to get em together and see if anybody here wants to try and grow some before they get too old.

I'll grow a couple of hots this year, but they gonna be well isolated. The main one will be a super hot of Carolina Reaper. This person uses them in making his flavored beef jerky. He can't keep that flavor in stock.

The only other hots I will be growing will be from folks here at TV, especially the Paprika ones.

My main goal this year is to grow sweets for me and the folks who can't eat the hots.

[QUOTE=Starlight;625826]These are the ones I have:

Aji Amararillo
Aji Habanero
Aji Lemon
Aji Red Pepper

I figure if the one with Habanero in its name is anything like the regular Habanero that one is gonna be hot.

[/QUOTE]

Ironically, Aji Habenaro may be the mildest out of your list.

[URL]http://www.tradewindsfruit.com/content/aji-habanero-pepper.htm[/URL]
[B]Aji Habanero Pepper[/B]

[B]Capsicum baccatum[/B]

A pretty type of Aji, named as such for its appearance and flavor which show resemblance to the famous Habanero peppers. Unlike the Habanero, the Aji Habanero is quite mild, with minimal heat. The flavor has the delicious smoky spiciness that Habanero's are famous for. The bright peppers ripen to an orange-yellow with slight wrinkles.

[B]Aji (Red)[/B] #9393 (30 seeds) Tall plants produce very hot 3 to 5-inch orange-red peppers that are generally dried into powder for use in sauces and stews. A Capsicum baccatum type with 30,000 to 50,000 Scoville units. 85 to 90 days.

[URL]http://www.tomatogrowers.com/AJI-RED/productinfo/9393/[/URL]

[B]Aji Lemon Chilli[/B]

Aji Lemon Chilli, Capsicum Baccatum, is originally from Ecuador or Peru. Also known under various other names: Aji Limon, Lemon Drop or Hot Lemon Chilli. The plant grows to about 1 meter in a pot and would grow bigger, if you plant it in the ground. The fruits ripen from green to a pure lemon yellow. The pods are small and measures 5 – 7 cm long and if you dried this chilli, it becomes wrinkled and tapered. The fruits have a strong citrus overtone and goes really well with seafood, stir fries or Thai food to give that citrus hint of flavour.





[B]Aji Amarillo[/B]

Aji Amarillo, a Capsicum Baccatum from Peru. This is the most widely chilli/pepper used in the Peruvian cuisine.
The chilli plant is tall and needs staking as the pods weigh the branches down once it pods up. All our Aji Amarillo chilli plants are in pots and grow to over 1.5m tall. A great producer of around 15 cm long and about 2.5cm wide pods. The pods start odd a green and go to an amazing orange colour.
Would be great as pickled, as a pasta, in a salad or in any cooking.
Overall an awesome looking plant with a lot of big, brightly coloured pods. The Aji Amarillo will look great in any garden and it is a great all rounder, heat is decent, great flavour and it’s a great producer.
[B]Flavour Wise: [/B]Nice and crunchy really really sweet capsicum like flavour, like a snow pea. Thick and meaty pods, that seem to take forever to chew. The flavour stays as its not overly hot, flavour stays for ages and love it. The sweetest pod we ever tried.
[B]Heat Wise: [/B]Heat hits pretty quick and has a nice solid burn to it. Upper mid heat.


[URL]https://thehippyseedcompany.com/product/aji-amarillo/[/URL]

Mark - I have Aji Chinchi Amarillo, new to me. Is this the same as Aji Amarillo?

Aji Chhinchi Amarillo - Similar to the very popular Aji Amarillo, but with somewhat smaller fruits. The slender peppers ripen to a bright yellow and feature a wonderful aroma and flavor. Medium sized plants bear heavily. Fun and very uncommon. Originally from Peru.

"Aji Lemon/Limon" is used to name two peppers, one a [I]C.baccatum [/I]the other a [I]C.chinense[/I]. The pods are quite similar but the plants and flavors are different. I prefer the name Lemon Drop for the [I]baccatum [/I]because there is no confusion as to which it is. One of my favorite peppers, but frustrating in that it will set a huge number of pods, then make you wait until it gets around to ripening them.

[QUOTE=guruofgardens;625852]Mark - I have Aji Chinchi Amarillo, new to me. Is this the same as Aji Amarillo?

Aji Chhinchi Amarillo - Similar to the very popular Aji Amarillo, but with somewhat smaller fruits. The slender peppers ripen to a bright yellow and feature a wonderful aroma and flavor. Medium sized plants bear heavily. Fun and very uncommon. Originally from Peru.[/QUOTE]

No idea guru, it sounds like the first aji amarillo Fred Hempel was offering, He renamed it baby Aji Amarillo after he got the larger Aji Amarillo.

[URL]https://store.growartisan.com/product/aji-amarillo-pepper[/URL]

Cheers !

[QUOTE=Starlight;625826]These are the ones I have:

Aji Amararillo
Aji Habanero
Aji Lemon
Aji Red Pepper

[/QUOTE]

Star, I've grown several Aji pepper varieties over the years and the two things that I remember is 1) they tend to be tall, like 4-6 feet or more, so you'll probably need to support them and 2) they take forever to mature. 100 days after plant out, some even 120.

Also, the Aji Red Pepper is also known as Aji Rojo (Red).

Lastly, a good reference database for peppers is here:
[URL]http://www.thechileman.org/[/URL]

Scroll down about half way and you should see a database search box on the right side of the screen.

Happy growing!

From what I can tell both Aji and Chili are words derived from the Indians of Mexico the Caribbean and South America.
It gets really confusing because Columbus came back with chilies calling them pepper as in what we call black pepper.
If you try to translate you end up going in circles.
This is why there is Castilian Spanish and Mexican or South American Spanish.
Even Columbus wasn't called Columbus it was Cristoforo Colombo and he wasn't Spanish he was from Genoa what we know today as part Italy.

Here is my slightly biased take on the term. Aji is the word used by my South American wife and her family to refer to the chile peppers grown in areas south of the Mexican border. As Mark noted, Aji Amarillo is a pretty terrific chile, essential for a number of South American dishes like chupe de camerones. However, and here is my bias, [U]real[/U] chile, red and green, comes from New Mexico. It comes from Hatch New Mexico to be specific, where the deity intended chile to be grown.

.. and where it wasn't for the thousands of years that chiles have been cultivated. But good on ya for clearly stating your bias. ;)


AFAIK, the term is mostly used natively in Peru and the surrounding areas, where there are so many [I]C.baccatum[/I] varieties that gringos are starting to use "Aji" to indicate a [I]baccatum[/I].

[QUOTE=MendozaMark;625832]Ironically, Aji Habenaro may be the mildest out of your list.

[URL]http://www.tradewindsfruit.com/content/aji-habanero-pepper.htm[/URL]
[B]Aji Habanero Pepper[/B]

[B]Capsicum baccatum[/B]

A pretty type of Aji, named as such for its appearance and flavor which show resemblance to the famous Habanero peppers. Unlike the Habanero, the Aji Habanero is quite mild, with minimal heat. The flavor has the delicious smoky spiciness that Habanero's are famous for. The bright peppers ripen to an orange-yellow with slight wrinkles.

[B]Aji (Red)[/B] #9393 (30 seeds) Tall plants produce very hot 3 to 5-inch orange-red peppers that are generally dried into powder for use in sauces and stews. A Capsicum baccatum type with 30,000 to 50,000 Scoville units. 85 to 90 days.

[URL]http://www.tomatogrowers.com/AJI-RED/productinfo/9393/[/URL]

[B]Aji Lemon Chilli[/B]

Aji Lemon Chilli, Capsicum Baccatum, is originally from Ecuador or Peru. Also known under various other names: Aji Limon, Lemon Drop or Hot Lemon Chilli. The plant grows to about 1 meter in a pot and would grow bigger, if you plant it in the ground. The fruits ripen from green to a pure lemon yellow. The pods are small and measures 5 – 7 cm long and if you dried this chilli, it becomes wrinkled and tapered. The fruits have a strong citrus overtone and goes really well with seafood, stir fries or Thai food to give that citrus hint of flavour.





[B]Aji Amarillo[/B]

Aji Amarillo, a Capsicum Baccatum from Peru. This is the most widely chilli/pepper used in the Peruvian cuisine.
The chilli plant is tall and needs staking as the pods weigh the branches down once it pods up. All our Aji Amarillo chilli plants are in pots and grow to over 1.5m tall. A great producer of around 15 cm long and about 2.5cm wide pods. The pods start odd a green and go to an amazing orange colour.
Would be great as pickled, as a pasta, in a salad or in any cooking.
Overall an awesome looking plant with a lot of big, brightly coloured pods. The Aji Amarillo will look great in any garden and it is a great all rounder, heat is decent, great flavour and it’s a great producer.
[B]Flavour Wise: [/B]Nice and crunchy really really sweet capsicum like flavour, like a snow pea. Thick and meaty pods, that seem to take forever to chew. The flavour stays as its not overly hot, flavour stays for ages and love it. The sweetest pod we ever tried.
[B]Heat Wise: [/B]Heat hits pretty quick and has a nice solid burn to it. Upper mid heat.


[URL]https://thehippyseedcompany.com/product/aji-amarillo/[/URL][/QUOTE]

Thanks for all the information. Copying it to note cards so I have reference. :D Funny how that could be the mildest. When you see habanero you immediately think heat.

[QUOTE=rdback;626099]Star, I've grown several Aji pepper varieties over the years and the two things that I remember is 1) they tend to be tall, like 4-6 feet or more, so you'll probably need to support them and 2) they take forever to mature. 100 days after plant out, some even 120.

Also, the Aji Red Pepper is also known as Aji Rojo (Red).

Lastly, a good reference database for peppers is here:
[URL]http://www.thechileman.org/[/URL]

Scroll down about half way and you should see a database search box on the right side of the screen.

Happy growing![/QUOTE]

Wow! :shock: I didn't realize they would get that tall. Thanks for sharing. I'll make sure they go in the section I can overhead tie up. Do they spread out wide too?