Greendoor - Tabasco – Chili Seeds

• Industrial icon: The basis for what is arguably the world’s most famous chilli sauce since 1868.
• Juicy texture: The pods are easy to crush, making them ideal for sauce and vinegar production.
• Beautiful appearance: With its upward-pointing, colourful pods, the plant almost looks like a small ornamental shrub.

Plant characteristics

The Tabasco plant has a very distinctive growth habit and differs significantly from standard chillies:

• Growth habit: Grows very bushy, upright and heavily branched. It forms a dense, almost tree-like crown.
• Height: Reaches approx. 80 to 120 cm in a pot, but can grow significantly taller outdoors under ideal conditions.
• Leaves: Rather small, narrow and a rich green.
• Yield: Extremely productive. The plant is a prolific bearer and produces hundreds of small pods that stand like candles on the branches.

The fruit

The pods are small but mighty:

• Shape: Slender, tapering to a point and about 3 to 4 cm long. They grow upright.
• Colour progression: A real play of colours! The fruits ripen from a light yellow-green through orange to a bright red.
• Special feature: Tabasco chillies are very juicy. When picked, they usually detach very easily from the calyx, which makes harvesting easier.

Flavour & heat level

The Tabasco delivers a sharp, clean heat without any smoky or sweet undertones.

• Heat level: 9 (Very hot). On the Scoville scale, it ranges between 30,000 and 50,000 SHU.
• Aroma: Fresh, spicy and direct. As it has little flavour of its own (such as the smoky aroma of habaneros), it is perfect for adding heat without overpowering the dish’s flavour.

Uses

Thanks to its juiciness, it is ideal for liquid preparations:

• Homemade sauces: Crushed and fermented with salt (or cooked directly with vinegar), it produces the classic Tabasco sauce.
• Chilli vinegar: Place whole pods in a bottle of white vinegar – ideal for seasoning pizza or stews.
• Drying: Due to their high moisture content, they should be dried in a dehydrator rather than air-dried.
• Fresh: Cut into fine rings for soups or Asian dishes.

Technical details

• Type: Capsicum frutescens
• Contents: 10+ seeds
• Heat level: 9 (Very hot)
• Sowing: February to April (pre-sowing indoors)
• Maturation time: approx. 90–110 days (takes a little longer to ripen)
• Location: Full sun, warm and sheltered. It loves warmth more than many other varieties.