Why "Save The Datil"?

• Our Minorcan Tradition- The Datil Pepper represents not only a unique ingredient in Florida's culinary landscape but also the legacy of Minorcan heritage and the love that our Minorcan grandmother, MeMa, poured into her datilicious family meals. She played a pivotal role in shaping our love for the Datil Pepper when she first made her Datil Pepper hot sauce, called “Hot Stuff”. MeMa's heritage and her culinary mastery brought the family together, creating cherished memories centered around this spicy pepper. The plight of the Minorcans is linked here - Florida's Minorcan Story

• The Datil Pepper is endangered. Our cry, “Save the Datil” is a way of bringing awareness to this amazing and versatile chili. In the book Chasing Chiles, by Friese/Kraft/Nabhan, the author, notes that the datil pepper was “boarded” on “The Ark of Taste” - a catalog of endangered foods - because it is in danger of being lost. We hope #savethedatil will direct chiliheads to the datil pepper in much the same way New Mexico helped grow the popularity of the Hatch Chile.

• Can't find Datil Peppers to Buy- When we began making MeMa’s recipe, we found it impossible to find datil peppers. We wondered why until we started growing our own and found out that Datil Peppers are very finicky and hard to grow, especially on a large scale.

• Florida’s Heritage Pepper- The Datil Pepper’s mysterious lineage is perplexing because is does not have a pioneer genus like all other peppers. Scott and Troy even differ on where they originated. We have created the "Save the Datil" petition that will be available to sign on our website soon.

Datil Peppers are difficult to grow!

• they require much more hands-on attention than most other pepper crops.

• do not like excessive water or heat! It can create fungus issues.

• do not like hurricanes!!!

• are susceptible to many pests such as aphids, white flies, lubber grasshoppers, thrip, and even tomato worms which each require the right approach to neutralize, using as little pesticides as possible.

• Deer and rabbits love to eat the plants down to a nub so we must fence in all our plants-fixing it on regular basis.

• We re-plant our datil plants every year to ensure the highest quality Datil Peppers anywhere. Two+ year old plants see a drastic decrease in quality in both pepper size and overall production.

• Please help us bring the Datil Pepper to the World. We invite you to enjoy anything with Datil Peppers, whether we created it or not (see Datil Dealers Page)! Order some fresh Mayhem Datil Peppers or a bottle or two of our own award-winning sauce, Mayhem “Original”. We just introduced our amazing Datilmen's Gold BBQ Sauce. Honor the cultural tapestry it weaves within the Sunshine State's rich gastronomic heritage.

We hope that our passion for the datil pepper comes through with all of our Fresh Datil Peppers & Mayhem Sauces!