Here in Brazil the malagueta is a small red real hot pepper used widely in the country. Here where I live in Amazonas some of the little malagueta's are extremely hot. I don't know about where you are at though.

dk

Hi Dk, We live in a very different area,here is a short season growing zon but we grow peppers into growinghouse and I think we succed quite well,this year we grown 80 kinds of peppers and also some malagueta.Do you say that if you take seeds from one special plant you get a hotter fruit even if it is the same kind.What kind of peppers do you have and what kinds are common in brazil.Do you know some history about "malagueta" I read in an site that it are native to west africa and in another that it comes from brazil from the beginning.
Roger from a quite cold Sweden

Roger,

I think that some plants produce hotter fruits than others, or more probably there are strains of malaguetas here in Brazil which are different than others. It is a big country and undoubtly islolation has produced variations. Since the hot pepper is an american plant all of them have their roots here to begin with. And, since there was some much contact in early european colonization of Brazil with West Africa due to the slave trade ti is hard to say where this variety began. But, I would put my bets on Brazil for the malagueta. We have a lot of types of native peppers, I have no idea how many. I have a small yellow one known here is olho de peixe, or fish eye which is pretty hot. The most common local pepper here in Amazonas state is the murupi. This pepper is a medium length yellow pepper used for preparing a sauce for fish. The raw pepper is mashed with olive oil and lime, on the plate you are eating from, and the fish is dipped in it. As you can imagine we do not need a greenhouse. But, during the hottest months of the year - August to October you need to provide some protection from the equatorial sun. Our average daytime temperatures at this time of the year run around 38 to 40 degrees Celsius. The nightime lows are always around 24 C.

dk

A friend of mine in Brazil (unknown location) sent me some seeds of what he calls pimenta de bico. He says it has very little heat but is full of flavour. Anybody ever hear of this pepper.

Here is a link that might be useful: pimenta de bico

I have malaguet seeds from the plant I grew two years ago, they were not isolated so there may be some cross polination, but if anyone wants seeds, send me your address and I will send you some. They were very small chils but very very prolific and very very hot. Makes an excellent hot sauce.
By the way there are several Brazilian restuarants here in Saint Louis, but all of them seem ignorant to the Malagueta whic I thought was a traditional Brazilian chili pepper. hmmmmmmm........

kendra

The Pimenta de bico (biquino) that I commented on is apparently called "Chupetinho" outside of Brazil

Here is a link that might be useful: Chileman's Database

I have gotten some fresh malagueta seeds recently from a local organic farmer, if anyone wants some PLMK. :)

A few notes on Malagueta: They are c. frutescens, just like the tabasco. and have the same 'wrinkling' or 'lumpiness' to their suface, like a tabasco. Originating in Brazil, they were picked up the Portuguese who confused them with the mElegueta pepper(aframom
um melegueta), a ginger family member from West Africa.
Personal note: prob. my favorite of all the small and very hot pods, very prolific plants, and well worth the extra time picking them. When ripe, they pull right off the stem, just like ripe tabascos or chiltepins. They're great in containers and over-winter well indoors.

I am sorry my friends I am still confused about the big malagueta from the azores isnt there nobody who knows anything about this kind it was a very good taste and very big fruit.

Roger

Columbus brought the seed to Spain and Portugal, Portuguese traders took it to their colonies in Africa where they were named Piri Piri (or Pili Pili)and then brought back to Portugal with that name. (whew!) While they look similar to Malaguetas (c. frutescens), they are like most pequin types, c. annuum.
All of these are very hot, and I don't know of any mild versions. Perhaps the chiles you had were misnamed, something that it very common around the world.
There are chiles in the Carribean which are very mild Habanero types (c. chinense) that have great flavor with very little bite. If you don't have a picture of the pods, try some of the chile pepper databases or some commercial growers, such as chileplants.com. They have very good pictures and descriptions.

In Portugal and the Azores, they use the term "malagueta" for a wide variety of chile peppers. Just like "chile" is used for many peppers in Mexico, they say "malagueta" in Portugal. So it is hard to know which chile variety the large, milder one you ate is.

Thank you that explain everything,I am sorry that I have no chans to get this kind of pepper but I have to try another good mild pepper instead.

Roger