Mild pepper varieties

Mild covers roughly 100 to 5,000 Scoville heat units, and it is the band most cooking actually happens in. Twenty varieties sit here, and the first surprise is who they include: both jalapeños in this catalog, TAM Jalapeño at 1,000 to 1,500 units and Early Jalapeño at 2,500 to 5,000. The pepper most people use as their mental benchmark for heat is, by these boundaries, a mild one. The second surprise is the range of things this band is for. Shishito and Padrón are blistered whole as a snack at 8 to 15 g a pod; Cubanelle is a frying pepper at 60 to 100 g; Pepperoncini goes into brine; Guajillo and Alma Paprika are grown to be dried. It is also the most international band in the catalog, with varieties from Japan, Spain, Cuba, Italy, Hungary, Mexico, Venezuela, Brazil and Barbados. Days to harvest run from 60 to 95 days from transplant, so there is something here for a short season and something that needs a long one.

Varieties
20
Days to harvest (from transplant)
60–95
Fruit weight
0–5 oz (2–140 g)
Heat

20 Mild

Compare all 20 side by side

All 20 mild pepper varieties

Ripe Aji Dulce pepper pods on the plant Aji Dulce Caribbean seasoning pepper: habanero aroma, almost no heat. 88 days (estimated) <1 oz (5–12 g) (estimated)
Ripe Alma Paprika pepper pods on the plant Alma Paprika Hungarian apple-shaped paprika pepper, sweet and thick-walled. 75 days 1–2 oz (25–45 g) (estimated)
Ripe Biquinho pepper pods on the plant Biquinho Brazilian teardrop pepper with a beak-like tip, pickled whole and barely hot. 92 days <1 oz (2–5 g) (estimated)
Ripe Bishop's Crown pepper pods on the plant Bishop's Crown Crown-shaped baccatum, mild in the wings and hotter at the core. 95 days (estimated) 0–1 oz (10–20 g) (estimated)
Ripe Black Hungarian pepper pods on the plant Black Hungarian Purple-leaved Hungarian heirloom with near-black pods and modest heat. 75 days ~1 oz (15–30 g) (estimated)
Ripe Cajun Belle pepper pods on the plant Cajun Belle AAS-winning mini bell with just a trace of heat, earliest pepper in the catalogue. 60 days (estimated) 1–2 oz (25–45 g) (estimated)
Ripe Cascabella pepper pods on the plant Cascabella Small upright wax pepper, the classic pickled hot ring. 80 days 0–1 oz (8–15 g) (estimated)
Ripe Cubanelle pepper pods on the plant Cubanelle Cuban frying pepper, long and thin-walled, with barely any heat. 65 days 2–4 oz (60–100 g) (estimated)
Ripe Early Jalapeno pepper pods on the plant Early Jalapeno A jalapeno that ripens two weeks early and tolerates a cool summer. 67 days (estimated) ~1 oz (20–35 g) (estimated)
Ripe Guajillo pepper pods on the plant Guajillo The dried mirasol chile, sold for its sweet heat in Mexican mole. 80 days 0–1 oz (10–20 g) (estimated)
Ripe Padron pepper pods on the plant Padron Galician frying pepper picked young: mostly mild, with the odd pod that bites. 75 days 0–1 oz (8–15 g) (estimated)
Ripe Pepperoncini pepper pods on the plant Pepperoncini The pale pickling pepper of Greek salads and Italian sandwiches, tangy rather than hot. 78 days (estimated) 0–1 oz (10–20 g) (estimated)
Ripe Santa Fe Grande pepper pods on the plant Santa Fe Grande Conical wax pepper carrying yellow, orange and red pods at once, mild to moderately hot. 80 days 1–2 oz (25–45 g) (estimated)
Ripe Shishito pepper pods on the plant Shishito Japanese frying pepper, mild and early — with about one hot pod in ten. 65 days 0–1 oz (8–15 g) (estimated)
Ripe TAM Jalapeno pepper pods on the plant TAM Jalapeno Jalapeno flavour at a fifth of the heat, bred at Texas A&M in 1981. 70 days (estimated) ~1 oz (20–35 g) (estimated)
Ripe Chimayo pepper pods on the plant Chimayo Northern New Mexico landrace chile, dried red for chile sauce. 75 days ~1 oz (15–30 g) (estimated)
Ripe Mulato Isleño pepper pods on the plant Mulato Isleño Poblano-type chile that ripens chocolate brown; dried, it is sold as mulato. 79 days (estimated) 3–5 oz (80–140 g) (estimated)
Ripe Pasilla Bajio pepper pods on the plant Pasilla Bajio Long dark chilaca when fresh, wrinkled pasilla when dried; a mole chile. 85 days (estimated) ~1 oz (20–40 g) (estimated)
Anaheim TMR A tobacco-mosaic-resistant Anaheim line from Petoseed with long, straight green chiles. 75 days (estimated) 1–3 oz (40–80 g) (estimated)
Ripe Ancho San Luis pepper pods on the plant Ancho San Luis A heart-shaped poblano that dries to a mahogany ancho, mild at 1,500 to 4,500 SHU. 78 days (estimated) 2–4 oz (60–110 g) (estimated)

How to choose

  1. Start from what you will do with the pod, because this band splits by use more cleanly than by heat. For blistering and eating whole, Shishito and Padrón. For frying and stuffing, Cubanelle and Santa Fe Grande. For the brine jar, Pepperoncini and Cascabella. For drying and grinding, Guajillo and Alma Paprika. A pepper bred for the pan rarely makes a good pickle, and the other way round.

  2. Then check the season. Cajun Belle finishes at 60 days from transplant and Bishop's Crown at 95, and every figure on this page is counted from transplant rather than from sowing. Peppers go in indoors six to nine weeks before the last frost, so add that before deciding whether the slower varieties ripen where you live.

  3. Expect variation within a variety, not just between them. Padrón is listed at 500 to 2,500 units for a reason: pods off the same plant differ, and the occasional hot one is part of how the variety is eaten in Spain. Heat also rises with ripeness and a hot summer, so a mild pepper picked late in a warm year is not the same pod as one picked green in a cool one.

  4. Watch plant size if space is the constraint. Most of this band stays under 90 cm and works in a large container, but Bishop's Crown reaches 150 cm and Cascabella can pass 120 cm, both of which need staking and a real footprint.

Compare side by side

Color Uses
Aji Dulce 88 (estimated) <1 oz (5–12 g) (estimated) Mild 3 (estimated) / 3 (estimated) / 2 (estimated) Sauce & paste, Fresh & salads, Snacking
Alma Paprika 75 1–2 oz (25–45 g) (estimated) Mild 4 (estimated) / 3 (estimated) / 3 (estimated) Drying, Canning, Fresh & salads, Stuffing
Anaheim TMR 75 (estimated) 1–3 oz (40–80 g) (estimated) Mild 2 (estimated) / 2 (estimated) / 2 (estimated) Canning, Drying
Ancho San Luis 78 (estimated) 2–4 oz (60–110 g) (estimated) Mild 3 (estimated) / 2 (estimated) / 2 (estimated) Fresh & salads, Drying
Biquinho 92 <1 oz (2–5 g) (estimated) Mild 3 (estimated) / 3 (estimated) / 2 (estimated) Canning, Snacking, Fresh & salads
Bishop's Crown 95 (estimated) 0–1 oz (10–20 g) (estimated) Mild 3 (estimated) / 3 (estimated) / 3 (estimated) Fresh & salads, Drying, Canning
Black Hungarian 75 ~1 oz (15–30 g) (estimated) Mild 3 (estimated) / 3 (estimated) / 3 (estimated) Fresh & salads, Roasting, Canning, Drying
Cajun Belle 60 (estimated) 1–2 oz (25–45 g) (estimated) Mild 4 (estimated) / 2 (estimated) / 2 (estimated) Fresh & salads, Stuffing, Snacking, Roasting
Cascabella 80 0–1 oz (8–15 g) (estimated) Mild 3 (estimated) / 4 (estimated) / 3 (estimated) Canning, Fresh & salads, Snacking
Chimayo 75 ~1 oz (15–30 g) (estimated) Mild 3 (estimated) / 2 (estimated) / 3 (estimated) Drying, Sauce & paste, Roasting
Cubanelle 65 2–4 oz (60–100 g) (estimated) Mild 3 (estimated) / 2 (estimated) / 2 (estimated) Roasting, Stuffing, Fresh & salads
Early Jalapeno 67 (estimated) ~1 oz (20–35 g) (estimated) Mild 2 (estimated) / 3 (estimated) / 3 (estimated) Fresh & salads, Canning, Stuffing, Roasting
Guajillo 80 0–1 oz (10–20 g) (estimated) Mild 2 (estimated) / 3 (estimated) / 3 (estimated) Drying, Sauce & paste
Mulato Isleño 79 (estimated) 3–5 oz (80–140 g) (estimated) Mild 3 (estimated) / 2 (estimated) / 3 (estimated) Stuffing, Roasting, Drying, Sauce & paste
Padron 75 0–1 oz (8–15 g) (estimated) Mild 2 (estimated) / 2 (estimated) / 2 (estimated) Roasting, Snacking, Fresh & salads
Pasilla Bajio 85 (estimated) ~1 oz (20–40 g) (estimated) Mild 2 (estimated) / 2 (estimated) / 3 (estimated) Drying, Sauce & paste, Roasting
Pepperoncini 78 (estimated) 0–1 oz (10–20 g) (estimated) Mild 3 (estimated) / 4 (estimated) / 2 (estimated) Canning, Fresh & salads, Snacking
Santa Fe Grande 80 1–2 oz (25–45 g) (estimated) Mild 3 (estimated) / 3 (estimated) / 3 (estimated) Canning, Roasting, Fresh & salads, Stuffing
Shishito 65 0–1 oz (8–15 g) (estimated) Mild 3 (estimated) / 2 (estimated) / 2 (estimated) Roasting, Snacking, Fresh & salads
TAM Jalapeno 70 (estimated) ~1 oz (20–35 g) (estimated) Mild 2 (estimated) / 3 (estimated) / 2 (estimated) Fresh & salads, Canning, Stuffing, Roasting

Values marked like this (estimated) are estimates.

Frequently asked questions

Is a jalapeño a mild pepper?

By the bands used here, yes. Both jalapeños in this catalog fall under 5,000 Scoville heat units: TAM Jalapeño at 1,000 to 1,500, bred at Texas A&M to keep the flavour and drop the heat, and Early Jalapeño at 2,500 to 5,000. Jalapeños from other sources are sometimes quoted up to 8,000 units, which would put them in the medium band instead. It is a boundary case, and the figure on each variety page is the one this catalog stands behind.

Which mild pepper is best for someone who does not like heat at all?

None of them, strictly. Every variety in this band carries some capsaicin, from about 100 units upward. For genuinely no heat, browse the sweet band instead, where bells, Italian frying peppers and Habanada sit at zero.

Are Shishito and Padrón the same thing?

No, though they are used the same way: blistered whole in a hot pan and eaten with salt. Shishito is Japanese and listed here at 100 to 1,000 Scoville heat units; Padrón is Spanish and runs 500 to 2,500, so it is the more likely of the two to hand you a hot one. Both crop heavily and both are picked green and small.

Can I dry any mild pepper?

You can dry most of them, but only some are worth it. Guajillo and Alma Paprika have the flesh and the flavour that hold up to drying and grinding, which is what they are grown for. A thin-walled snacking pepper dries to very little, and a thick fresh-eating type takes a long time to dry and can spoil before it finishes.

Related