Datil pepper

Datil is a type of hot pepper grown in the area of St. Augustine, bringing some serious Florida heat to the table. The pepper ranges from 100,000 to 300,000 Scoville heat units and it's from 12 to 120 times hotter than jalapeños.

Visually, datil looks like a slightly elongated and thin habanero pepper. The flavors are sweet, tropical, and fruity, so datil pepper is often used in salsas, hot sauces, and barbecue marinades. It's also a key component of Minorcan clam chowder, another specialty of St. Augustine.

Among many theories about its origin, the most popular one says that these peppers were brought over to Florida from Minorca, Spain in the late 1800s. Nowadays, there's even a datil pepper festival cookoff that's held each October in St. Augustine.