Aji Cachucha Pepper Review

October 30, 2019 | Article Topics:

When I was picking out peppers about this time last year – for the 2019 grow season – I selected a few varieties that were in the low-to-medium heat range. The Aji Cachucha (aka Aji Dulce) was one of those purchases. I didn’t really know much about this variety beyond it’s Cuban origin and 1,000-5,000 SHU.

Aji Cachucha photo

The only problem with this particular plant – or at least, the plant I grew – is that produced fruits with zero heat. Not even a tingle. The pods certainly look the part: smooth skinned and red, almost habanero-like in appearance. Once sliced open, the Aji Cachucha is thin-to-medium walled and fairly spacious inside. There’s a small concentration of placenta and seeds nearest the stem.

Aji Cachucha photo

There isn’t much of an aroma. It smells like any other pepper with a distant, lingering bit of fruitiness. Crunching into the pepper, it’s immediately sweet and juicy with that same soft fruitiness. The heat, if you could call it that, is nearly imperceptible, just barely tingling the edges of the tongue. I was personally hoping for something a little more in that aspect of the experience.

All in all, however, the Aji Cachucha pepper is pretty tasty, but not quite tasty enough to make it a snacking pepper the way the Biquinho was this year. If the fruit were larger in size, they would be great for stuffing. This will be one that I’ll put on the back burner for now and will check it out again in a future growing season. Maybe.