The Datil Pepper: St. Augustine’s 200-Year-Old Secret Ingredient

Somewhere in a St. Augustine backyard, there’s a pepper plant that could send you to the emergency room. The datil pepper packs 100,000 to 300,000 Scoville units (up to 60 times hotter than a jalapeño), but locals have been eating it for over 200 years. They put it on everything.

A Pepper With a Passport

The datil (Capsicum chinense) is a cousin of the habanero, but sweeter and more complex, with a fruity tang that habaneros lack. Its origin story is still debated. The most popular version ties it to the Minorcans: indentured workers from the Mediterranean island of Minorca who arrived in Florida in the 1760s to work the failed New Smyrna colony. In 1777, the survivors walked 70 miles north to St. Augustine, reportedly carrying datil seeds sewn into their clothing. Another theory credits a Chilean jelly maker named S. B. Valls, who may have brought the pepper from Cuba around 1880. Either way, the datil took root in St. Augustine and almost nowhere else.

Backyard Gold

For nearly two centuries, datil peppers were a backyard secret. Families guarded their seeds and recipes, passing both down through generations. A UF horticulture professor told the St. Johns County Commission that St. Augustine is “the only place on the planet” where the plant originated commercially. Today, a handful of local producers have built a cottage industry around it. Dat’l Do It, Minorcan Datil Pepper Products, and Smokin Datil all make sauces, jellies, mustards, and relishes from locally grown peppers. The most legendary condiment is “Bottled Hell,” a ketchup-based datil sauce that turns up on seafood tables across town.

The Taste of Old St. Augustine

The datil’s real home is Minorcan cooking. Minorcan clam chowder (a tomato-based, datil-spiked rival to New England’s version) and pilau (a seasoned rice dish) are St. Augustine staples that have been on local menus for generations. Today, roughly 25,000 Minorcan descendants still live in St. Johns County. In 2013, the county made the datil its official plant, and the first Saturday of October is now Datil Pepper Day, complete with an annual festival where local restaurants compete for the best datil dish.

If you visit, pick up a bottle of local datil sauce at any shop on St. George Street. Start with a few drops. The sweetness hits first, then the heat arrives about three seconds later. You’ll understand why Minorcan families kept this one to themselves for 200 years.