Piment d’Espelette, AOP

A pepper you need to experience in order to fully appreciate–no words can really sum it up. If you’ve seen images from the Basque region you’ve probably seen festoons of these peppers drying. It is an iconic product of the region, and is required for making authentic pintxos. It is used as frequently there as black pepper is here. The flavor is a mild heat (4,000 Scoville Units, so, about like Hungarian Banana pepper at it’s hottest or a Jalapeno at its mildest), but much more complex than most peppers. There’s an earthy smokiness to it, though it has not been smoked. There’s a sweet-ish aftertaste that lingers. There’s a fruitiness that modulates the other flavors. It is a pepper to make you re-think an apathy towards peppers, it is a pepper to make you glad of your passion for peppers. It’s expensive, and worth it.

1.58 oz jar