Aci Sivri Pepper Review

The Aci Sviri has its origins in the country of Turkey and is a relative of the Cayenne pepper. My particular plant is fairly small – a result of losing half of it during a pretty terrible storm in early June. What is left of the plant is still producing this long, red fruit at a decent rate.

As expected, the Aci Sivri resembles your standard Cayenne for the most part. It’s perhaps a bit longer overall – most of the fruit I have harvested are over six inches. The interior isn’t as packed as with seeds as many Cayenne I have grown in the past. The placenta runs the full length.

The aroma is fairly subtle, embracing more of a sweet red pepper character than the smokiness typically found in Cayenne varieties. There is no hint of any heat on the nose. Biting through the crunchy skin produces a nice sweetness, gentle grassy notes and a slight bitterness from the placenta and seeds. The flavor profile is clean and refreshing.

I have a feeling that the seed from which this plant germinated may have been a dud. There is next to no heat to be found within this or any of the other pods I have picked so far this season. There is just an echo of a distant tingle along the sides of the tongue after eating the entire pepper – with it mostly concentrated at the stem where the placenta is thickest.

While I thoroughly enjoyed the sweet flavor of the Aci Sivri, that’s not why I chose to grow it this season. I do select sweet peppers to grow each year, but for those that are supposed to have some level of heat, that’s what I want to find when I bite into it. With the Aci Sivri, it looks like I am out of luck. That said, it has been a nice addition to salads and the like where heat is not a requirement.