Padrón peppers from Galicia are famous for the saying “uns pican e outros non” – some are hot and some are not. Since 2010 they have been an EU Protected Designation of Origin under the name Pemento de Herbón.
| Species | Capsicum annuum, local ecotypes of the ‚Padrón‘ variety |
|---|---|
| Heat | mostly mild; 1,417 SHU in a scientific measurement; the occasional hot one |
| Origin | Herbón (municipality of Padrón), Galicia, Spain |
| Protection | PDO “Pemento de Herbón”, Commission Regulation (EU) No 700/2010 |
| Fruit | picked green and immature, 3.5–5.5 cm long, 1.5–2 cm wide, 3.5–4.5 g, smooth glossy light-green skin |
| Flavour | “moderately intense aroma, sweet taste, possibly slightly hot” |
Some are hot, some are not
The official PDO specification itself quotes the popular Galician saying “uns pican e outros non”: the peppers are usually sweet, but now and then a hot one turns up. According to the specification, capsaicin rises mainly under water stress and temperatures above 30 °C, so growers remove plants and fruits that are too hot, recognising them by paler colour, tight skin and a curved shape. The only scientific measurement we found gave Padrón 1,417 SHU (HPLC) – the lowest of 71 pepper samples.
The monks of Herbón
According to the PDO specification, cultivation in Galicia goes back to seeds brought by Franciscan monks to the convent of Herbón in the 17th century. The Franciscans had houses in Mexico, Peru and Chile, and historians are said to place the seeds‘ origin in Mexico – though the specification cites no particular historian. An 18th-century manuscript by Fray Antonio Herosa praises Herbón’s peppers, and the 18th-century Catastro de Ensenada records the crop. Originally the peppers were sold dried and ground.
Pemento de Herbón
Galicia approved the specification in 2009, and the EU registered “Pemento de Herbón” as a Protected Designation of Origin by Commission Regulation (EU) No 700/2010 of 4 August 2010. The area covers the municipalities of Padrón, Dodro and Rois (A Coruña) and Pontecesures and Valga (Pontevedra). The official harvest season runs from 1 May to 31 October. In 2024 the designation had 24 growers and produced over 72 tonnes of peppers.
The Japanese counterpart: shishito
Japan knows a similar “roulette” with the sweet shishito pepper (also C. annuum), whose heat varies from fruit to fruit. A 2021 Japanese study found that fruits that develop without seeds (parthenocarpic) contain more capsaicinoids and show higher expression of the genes that make them – supporting the folk wisdom that fruits with fewer seeds tend to be hotter.
Related
Poblano · Jalapeño · History of chilli · Scoville scale
Sources
- Consellería do Medio Rural, Xunta de Galicia: Pliego de condiciones DOP Pemento de Herbón (2009); technical sheet 2024
- Commission Regulation (EU) No 700/2010: EUR-Lex
- Santos et al. (2012). Acta Horticulturae 939: 315–322. doi:10.17660/ActaHortic.2012.939.41
- Estrada B. et al. (2001). Acta Alimentaria 30(4): 373–380. record
- Kondo F. et al. (2021). The Horticulture Journal 90(1): 48–57. doi:10.2503/hortj.UTD-216