Finca Varsovia

Order our Exquisite Colombian Chillies Here

This post is English as it is aimed at potential international customers to our authentic Colombian wild Chirca Chillies. Please feel free to contact us in English, German or Spanish by the direct contact form below. We are offering packs of 25g – Dried Authentic Wild Colombian Chirca Chillies. We can also preserve them as an appetiser in vinegar or olive oil. Please let us know of your interest. We would like to distribute to a wider base of Chilli connoisseurs and restaurateurs across the world. Please do contact us with any queries or to make an order. We respond to all messages promptly.

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All about our Chirca Chillies

In our region of Colombia, we all have these fruits Chirca Ají (Ají meaning Chilli) and they grow freely throughout our farm as a naturally wild plant. This plant and its fruit are referred to by many different names all across Colombia and Latin America. The majority of these names stem from the indigenous peoples of Colombia whom use it and trade it to this day. English speakers like to refer to it as a bird pepper or cayenne pepper. Its scientific naming comes under that of Capsicum annuum L. – Solanáceas (Solanaceae).

Our wild chilli plants grow in genuinely wild locations throughout our remote hillside Andean farm. The locations on the farm themselves are hard to get to. The plants themselves are a type of lively shrub with multiple small, erect fruits, with a smooth peduncle allowing the ripe red fruit to be easily pulled from the calyx, for easy removal by frugivorous birds since the intense red colour of the ripe berries is very attractive to them. Birds can not perceive the capsaicinoids (Spice) of the chilli since this substance acts on a specific nervous receptor that they do not have. In this way, the plant manages to propagate its species through the depositions of the seeds throughout landscape. We also have the perfect climate for the optimum development of our wild Chirca Chillies, since it oscillates between 18ºC and 28ºC along with the right altitude of 1400m and optimum rainfall.

The current use of chilli in Colombian-Andean dishes has a tradition that can be traced back to pre-Hispanic times since it originated in South America. It is known that it was one of the predominant ingredients in the pre-Hispanic food and that it also had ritual importance as an offering or the temporary suppression of its consumption within some rites. At the time of the conquest, the pepper was introduced in Europe as one of many exotic plants brought from the new world and later to the European colonies in Asia, where nowadays the pepper is a key ingredient in the cuisine of this continent.

The degree of the spice to the chilli is due to the alkaloid Capsaicin, which is inherited as the dominant gene and measured in degrees Scoville (SHU). Currently, a rough estimation of our Chirca in Scoville grades from 50,000 to 100,000 SHU* are easily reached, considering that this chilli could be one of the many variants of the «Chilli Pequin» from Central America. To give a more tangible description of the Chirca spice, Jalapeño pepper is between 3,500 and 6,000 SHU.

Here at Finca Varsovia, we hand pick our Chirca Chilli pepper only when most ripe, then sun-dry them over several days for them then to be packed airtight. We used our own chillies here in our family kitchen in sauces such as; ají de huevo, ají of avocado and/or Aji of herbs; As dry seasoning in beans and lentils; We can also preserve them as an appetiser in vinegar or olive oil. If you would like this on your order, please let us know in the contact form above.

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Please do contact us with any queries or to make a purchase. Orders can easily be setup with invoices no matter how big or small via email, please get in touch with us by the direct contact form above.

• Many superb recipes that use our same Chirca chillies (Ají): My Colombian Recipes. We have a favourite receipt for Ají Picante (Colombian Hot Sauce) that anyone can make with our Chirca Chillies.
• If you would like to know more about the plant itself, you may find this document interesting as explains a great deal about the characteristics similar to our chilli plants.
• *Valuation provided by Chileplanet.eu.