Chili pepper, a long journey for a spice that has become globalized today!
From a botanical point of view, pepper is part of the Solanaceae family which includes nearly 90 genera and more than 3000 species mainly native to southern and central America. In this family we find: eggplant, tomato, physalis, potato and even tobacco.
It is believed that the pepper originated in Bolivia and then spread to South America via birds carrying its seeds. According to remains found in the caves of Tamaulipas and Tehuacan in Mexico, chili pepper has been used for at least 7,000 years. The Aztecs obtained various varieties from the small piquin, totaling 27 with different shapes, colors, sizes and strengths. Traces of the first domestications date back to more than 3000 BC.
1492 marks the departure of chili pepper on a long journey: Christopher Columbus was the first European to bring chili pepper back. Doctor Diego Alvarez Chanca, a member of his expedition, noticed its local usage called "agi", and proposed it to Spain. At first, the pepper had little success, its spicy side was considered uninteresting compared to pepper.
But economic data changed its destiny: spices coming from Asia were increasingly taxed by the various intermediaries along their route (Asia Minor and the Middle East), and at the same time the growing European bourgeoisie were in more and more demand. of spices, corresponding to a certain “standing”. This had a double consequence: the rise in spice prices and the absolute desire to bypass land routes for importing spices. The sea route had to be found, thus motivating all expeditions to discover the Indies.
The Portuguese Vasco da Gama, passing through the Cape of Good Hope, discovered the Malabar coast of India in 1498. He thus allowed the creation of a new maritime and commercial route going from Europe directly to India.
Goa was thus the first trading post and the first city won by the Portuguese. This city was the point of introduction of chili pepper. The pepper was well received by the Indians, who were used to heat (found in peppers and ginger). In addition, the climate (hot and humid) of the Malabar coast was perfectly conducive to its cultivation which became very easy. Chili pepper was therefore adopted by the Indians and entered into the composition of their masala (spice mixtures).
The chili pepper route did not stop in India, it then followed the various trade routes spreading through the west: in India, in China and throughout Asia. And from the east: going up India and following the old and traditional routes via the Arabs who imported it.
Surprisingly, it was the exchanges with the Ottoman Empire that allowed the creation of today's AOP: in fact the Turks (Ottoman) adopted it and during their conquests they brought it to Europe and in particular via the Balkans to Hungary. The Hungarians integrated it into their cuisine, including the famous goulash. They cultivated many crops and began to create different cultivars: Thus Paprika was born. Today only and only the pepper from Slovakia and Hungary can bear the name Paprika.
Chili pepper then spread in Europe more slowly from the 18th century until today, the sensitivity of the European palate to the spiciness of chili pepper has slowed its diffusion somewhat. So the pepper came to us from the east of France.
But for the record it also arrived from the west much earlier: in 1650 we found the first pepper plantations in the Basque country (chili pepper which came directly from the West Indies and South America via maritime expeditions). This pepper would become the Gorria genus (Capsicum Annuum Gorria ) and is today simply called the Espelette Pepper.
Even more surprising, although the chili pepper route traveled from South America to Mexico did not go further north, the American Indians did not use it. Only a few wild species were found endemic to Texas. No trace of South American peppers. It was not until the conquest of the West in the 19th century that it was imported from Europe!
This plant traveled around the world in 500 years and following the various commercial and historical adventures of Man, to be cultivated almost everywhere today.
Today there are more than 140 varieties of pepper with different flavors and strengths.