Taste and flavour

Red paprika is one of the most respected spices. Paprika fruits (Capsicum annuum) from the Solanaceae family have a pleasantly fruity and slightly spicy note and are ideal for all dishes that can handle a spicy flavour well. Like hot paprika, red paprika also contain capsaicin, which causes its spiciness, but at a lower percentage. Red paprika owes its aroma to its essential oil, which gives it a fruity note.

Advice for use

– Dried paprika in flakes should be kept at room temperature, away from sunlight, in a sealed container.
– Paprika flakes are ideal for hot and cold dishes.
– Paprika flakes should be added to hot dishes 10 minutes before the end of cooking so that the spice retains all its aroma. If we cook it too long, the spiciness will prevail. It is, in fact, intensified by the heat.
– Never fry paprika in flakes on hot oil. It will take on a bitter flavour.

Origin and history

Paprika and hot paprika are ancient plants originating from Central and South America. Christopher Columbus brought them from their ancestral homeland, America, to Europe – first red paprika, then green and yellow, naming them after the Spanish word pimienta (pepper). He believed that he had discovered another variety of black pepper in the New World. He wasn’t right. The real pepper plant only grew in India at that time.