About Chili

Chilies are classified as Solanaceae in the plant kingdom, the same family as tomatoes and eggplants.

The earliest records of chilies are as early as 5000 BC, the Mesomeric Americans (Mayans) began to eat chilies. It was grown here in 7000 BC, so chilies can be said to be one of the oldest crops cultivated by humans. An annual pepper originally found in Mesoamerica, including bell chilies, bell chilies, and jalapenos.

chilies have been in the Americas long before Columbus discovered the taste of chilies on his way to the Americas. In fact, since Columbus confused chilies with those found in India, Columbus later brought chilies back to Spain, saying it was a spice, and although it was nightshade, Columbus’ mistake didn’t prevent chilies almost immediately spread all over the world. The famous bell pepper was first discovered in South America.

Africans love “grains of paradise” with a gingery and spicy flavor, making it very easy for them to incorporate the savory chili into their recipes. In just a few years, with the introduction of the Portuguese, chilies have been spread to Mozambique on the east side of the African continent. At that time, the Portuguese cast a big net to buy African slaves, and wherever they bought slaves, they took the chilies, so that the chilies quickly spread across the African continent.

At first, Europeans did not accept chilies very much. chilies entered Antwerp from Spain, then Italy in 1526 and England in 1548. Many theories hold that Muslim traders brought the chilies from India via the Persian Gulf to Aleppo (northwest Syria) or the city of Alexandria (Egypt), and then north into Eastern Europe. Another theory is that the Turks brought chilies from Asia to Eastern Europe: via the Persian Gulf and Asia Minor and the Black Sea into Hungary, which Turkey conquered in 1526. Then, chilies entered Germany from Hungary. A third possibility is that the Portuguese exported chilies from Hormuz, one of its colonies, to Eastern Europe to compete with black pepper from India.

Although chilies have been grown in Mexico for centuries, they did not appear in North America until after the slave trade fully flourished. The popularity of chilies in African food contributed to its spread to the New World. Africans loved chilies so much that slave traders had to carry large quantities of them on their transatlantic voyages. And, in order for African slaves to maintain their eating habits while living in North America, planters also had to grow chilies. As a result, chilies settled in North America after the 17th century.
There are two routes for the introduction of chilies into China. One is to declare the far-reaching Silk Road, from West Asia to Xinjiang, Gansu, Shaanxi and other places, and the first to be cultivated in the northwest; It was cultivated in Hunan and other places, and then gradually expanded to the whole country, which is almost a blank area without pepper.