Datil Pepper Scoville, 100,000–300,000 SHU

How hot is a datil pepper?

About as hot as a habanero. UF/IFAS Extension in St. Johns County, the county around St. Augustine, puts the datil at 100,000 to 300,000 Scoville units¹, and UF/IFAS gives the habanero 100,000 to 350,000⁶. That puts both in the extra-hot band of the index.

One datil carries 20 to 60 times the heat of an average jalapeño, so you season a pot with it, not a plate. That ratio is our arithmetic on the UF/IFAS figures: the average jalapeño sits near 5,000 SHU⁶, and 100,000 ÷ 5,000 = 20, 300,000 ÷ 5,000 = 60.

Why does the one lab test read lower than the range?

Because nobody has published a datil range from a lab, only from extension sheets, and the single lab study measured something else. A 2019 HortTechnology trial on the 'Wanda' datil found 1,810 to 4,440 µg of capsaicinoids per gram⁷. One µg per gram is one part per million, and labs multiply parts per million by 16 to get SHU⁸:

• 1,810 × 16 = about 29,000 SHU
• 4,440 × 16 = about 71,000 SHU

If those are fresh-weight figures, that greenhouse crop ran well under the extension range. The abstract does not say whether it reports fresh or dry weight, and dry figures would read several times higher, so we print the extension range and show the lab result as a check you can weigh yourself. The trial also found slightly more heat in pods picked orange than in pods picked yellow⁷.

Where did the datil come from, Minorca or Cuba?

St. Augustine grew it first, and the rest is an argument you can judge yourself. The 1990 paper that named the datil calls it the only C. chinense variety grown commercially in the United States at the time², and every source agrees on the town. The deeper origin splits the sources.

1. 1768

   Minorcans arrive

   The British bring Minorcan indentured workers to Florida's indigo plantations; local legend credits them with the pepper.²

2. 1962

   Seed in the US gene bank

   USDA's seed bank receives a datil sample, now accession PI 281435.³

3. 1990

   A named variety

   Botanist Jean Andrews describes 'Datil' as a variety of C. chinense, grown for at least 100 years around St. Augustine.²

4. 1994

   UF/IFAS fact sheet

   Extension notes the Minorcan community there particularly prefers it.⁴

5. 2009

   New products

   UF/IFAS develops datil salami, kielbasa and a summer sausage.⁵

Andrews calls the Minorcan story a legend without factual basis. She thinks the datil almost certainly grew from habanero-like seed brought from Cuba, a big trading partner of early Florida². UF/IFAS writers in 2009 lean the same way, calling a Caribbean trade route the more plausible story⁵, while the St. Johns County sheet simply says the origin is unknown¹.

The name is the one thing the legend explains well. Datil means date in Minorcan Spanish, and Andrews notes the wrinkled fruit has the shape, and sometimes the color, of a dried date². If you want the wider family, the Caribbean peppers list covers the island chinenses the datil most likely came from.

What does a datil look like as it ripens?

Small, wrinkled and narrow, turning from green to golden yellow while you wait. Andrews describes fruit 2.5 to 6 cm long and 1 to 1.5 cm wide that start nearly white, turn purplish in full sun, then lime green and finally golden yellow². The St. Johns sheet adds a purple stripe on the lime green stage and says you can pick there or wait for yellow or orange, when the flavor peaks¹.

Next to a habanero, the shape gives it away, so you can tell them apart at a market stall. Andrews set the two side by side in her description:

Datil

Habanero

• 2.5–6.0 cm²Length3–4 cm²
• Narrow, ovate, tapering to a slight neck and a pointed tip²ShapeWide, flat-tipped, with no neck²
• Golden yellow²Ripe colorOrange to reddish²

The plant itself stays compact, 1½ to 2½ feet tall¹, and the botanist counts two or more flowers at each node with purple anthers².

What does a datil taste like?

Sweet and fruity first, then the burn reaches you. UF/IFAS describes a unique sweet, fruity tang on top of the heat¹, and the 2009 sausage researchers call it sweeter and fruitier than a habanero⁵. That sweetness is why St. Augustine puts it in jelly as readily as in sauce. If you know the habanero's flavor, expect a similar fruit with more sweetness, as those UF/IFAS writers put it; if you only know jalapeños, expect your first bite to hit far harder than the bright yellow color suggests. Your best first taste is a thin slice on a cracker with cream cheese, where the fat softens the burn and lets you notice the fruit.

• Sweet
• Fruity
• Tangy

How do St. Augustine cooks use datils?

Mostly in a bottle, and you'll find it on every St. Augustine shelf. UF/IFAS said in 1994 that most datils become hot sauce, with families keeping their own recipes close⁴. The list of local uses runs wider now:

• Hot sauce: the main job. One of the better-known commercial sauces at the time mixed brown sugar, ketchup, tomato paste and honey with datil sauce⁴; you can try your own with the datil hot sauce recipe.
• Jelly, relish and mustard: the St. Johns County sheet lists all three, plus barbecue sauce¹.
• Flakes: UF/IFAS names dried datil flakes among the traditional uses⁵.
• Sausage: UF/IFAS made a datil summer sausage, salami and kielbasa; tasters marked the version with seeds lower because the seeds added extra heat⁵.

When you cook with datils, take that sausage panel's hint and scrape out the seeds and pale ribs if your family runs mild. A half pod in a pot of chowder is a good first test before you commit a whole one.

Courtney Cox posted this short local segment on the St. Augustine datil, so you can see the pods and how the town puts them on its menus, though the production is simple and it adds no heat figures.

Play video: The St. Augustine Datil Pepper 3:42

The St. Augustine Datil Pepper

From Courtney Cox

VideoPlays from YouTube when you press play.Watch on YouTube

1 source

How long do fresh datils keep in the fridge?

Three weeks, if you pick them yellow. The 2019 HortTechnology trial stored datils in vented clamshells for 21 days at three temperatures and counted the fruit still fit to sell⁷:

The yellow pods held up better at every temperature, and the researchers saw no chilling injury even at 2 °C⁷. Orange pods carried more sugar (9.5 % soluble solids against 7.8 %) and about twice the carotenoids, so the choice is yours: pick yellow if you want them to last, orange if you'll cook them this week.

Can you grow datils outside St. Augustine?

Yes, anywhere you can give a plant about five months without frost¹; the datil has spread across the United States and beyond since its Florida start⁵. The St. Johns County sheet gives the numbers that start a crop:

1. 1

   Warm the seed tray

   Sow ¼ inch deep in sterile mix in late winter, keep it at 75–80 °F and wait 10 to 20 days for germination.¹

2. 2

   Pot up and feed lightly

   Move seedlings into 2 to 4 inch pots at the first true leaves and start half-strength fertilizer.¹

3. 3

   Plant out after frost

   Set plants 12 to 24 inches apart in full sun to light afternoon shade, at a pH near 6.5.¹

4. 4

   Pick often

   Frequent harvests push the plant to set more fruit; St. Augustine growers picked from June until frost.¹²

Florida gardeners can also sow a second crop in midsummer for fall¹. The full season, with containers and cold-climate timing, is in the guide to growing datil plants.

What trips people up with datils?

Four things come up again and again in the Florida sources, and each has a fix you can use:

Is a datil hotter than a habanero?

Only at the very top, by the extension ranges: the habanero's ceiling of 350,000 SHU sits above the datil's 300,000¹⁶. You can set any two peppers side by side in the compare tool, which draws both published ranges on one axis.

How much datil replaces a habanero, or the other way round?

Work it from the midpoints. The datil range averages 200,000 SHU and the habanero range 225,000, so by weight you swap them almost one for one: 10 g of habanero carries about the heat of 11 g of datil (10 × 225,000 ÷ 200,000 = 11.25). Our arithmetic, so taste as you go.

Pod for pod, the sizes matter more than the numbers. Andrews measured habaneros at 3 to 4 cm and datils at up to 6 cm², so a big datil can outweigh the habanero it replaces. Weigh your pods once and you'll know how many your recipe needs.

If you swap toward milder peppers, the gap gets large fast. An average jalapeño at 5,000 SHU⁶ needs 20 to 60 times the weight of datil to match it, which turns a sauce into a jalapeño sauce. A Scotch bonnet, same species and 100,000 to 350,000 SHU⁶, keeps both the heat and the fruit.

Where should you go next with datils?

If your store has no datils, the swap finder ranks the closest options by heat and sweetness, and it starts you with the Scotch bonnet and the habanero. If you'd rather have your own supply, start seed in late winter so your plants get their five warm months¹.