Peppadew behaves like a branded brined condiment with predictable sweet tang and gentle warmth. Cherry pepper behaves like a broader pepper category: sweet, hot, fresh, pickled, or stuffed depending on the jar. The choice is not only pepper shape. It is how much control you want over brine, heat, filling, and final texture.
Editorial Contributor·Updated Jun 29, 2026·
Reviewed by
Karen Liu
Quick Comparison
Peppadew Pepper measures 280–650 SHU while Cherry Pepper registers 100–500 SHU. That makes Peppadew Pepper about 1.3x hotter by upper SHU range. Peppadew Pepper is known for its sweet, tangy, and lightly brined flavor (C. baccatum), while Cherry Pepper offers sweet and mild notes (C. annuum).
Peppadew Pepper
280–650 SHU
Mild · sweet, tangy, and lightly brined
Cherry Pepper
100–500 SHU
Mild · sweet and mild
Heat difference: Peppadew Pepper is about 1.3× hotter by upper SHU range
Species:C. baccatum vs C. annuum
Best for: Peppadew Pepper excels in everyday cooking and salsas, Cherry Pepper in fresh salsas and mild recipes
Peppadew Pepper is
about 1.3× hotter than Cherry Pepper.
Peppadew Pepper spans 280–650 SHU.
Cherry Pepper spans 100–500 SHU.
Use the ranges to decide whether the recipe needs a measured dose, a mild overlap, or a hard substitution limit.
Tools: Scoville chart and SHU calculator.
The Peppadew pepper is best understood as a branded sweet piquante pepper, not as a generic grocery-store chile. The official PEPPADEW FAQ says the brand name belongs to a South African company and that the pepper most people associate with it is a Capsicum baccatum product, not a cherry pepper.
What makes the route distinctive is the shape-and-use combination. The fruit is small, round, red, and naturally hollow enough to stuff cleanly, which is why deli counters lean so hard on the cheese-filled version.
Cherry Pepper
sweetmildC. annuum
Cherry peppers look exactly like their name suggests: round, about 1–2 inches in diameter, and bright red at full maturity, though they also appear in green and yellow stages. That shape alone sets them apart from the elongated forms you see in sweet Italian frying peppers with their thin-walled versatility.
At 100–500 SHU, they register on the Scoville scale reference well below any jalapeño - closer to a bell pepper with a faint tingle. The flavor is the real story: thick-walled flesh that's genuinely sweet, slightly fruity, and dense enough to hold up to stuffing, roasting, or brining without falling apart.
Peppadew Pepper (C. baccatum) and Cherry Pepper (C. annuum) come from different species, giving them fundamentally different flavor profiles.
Peppadew Pepper brings sweet, tangy, and lightly brined notes, so it fits recipes where that flavor should remain visible.
Cherry Pepper leans sweet and mild, which can change the sauce, filling, marinade, or garnish even when the heat range looks close.
Culinary Uses for Peppadew Pepper and Cherry Pepper
Peppadew Pepper
Most cooks meet Peppadew in a jar, and that is the right starting point. The sweet brine and mild heat are the whole point of the eating experience.
Stuffing is the standout use because the fruit is naturally shaped for it. A quick deseeding method that protects the cavity for stuffing keeps the walls intact and gives you a neat pocket for goat cheese, whipped feta, or herbed ricotta.
Fresh fruit is rarer, but when you find it the flavor still points you back toward the same use cases. It is brighter and less briny than the jarred version, with a clean sweet-acid profile that sits closer to pickling peppers than roasting peppers.
Cherry Pepper
Stuffed cherry peppers are the classic application, and for good reason. The thick walls and hollow interior create a natural container that holds fillings through roasting, frying, or baking.
Pickled cherry peppers appear on nearly every antipasto platter worth its salt. The brine penetrates the flesh without turning it mushy - a texture advantage over thinner-walled peppers.
Roasting concentrates the sweetness considerably. Whole roasted cherry peppers alongside the sweet, heat-free paprika pepper make a striking side dish with very little effort.
You prefer sweet, tangy, and lightly brined flavors
You need a C. baccatum variety
Best fit
Choose Cherry Pepper if…
You want milder, more approachable heat
You prefer sweet and mild flavors
You need a C. annuum variety
Can You Substitute One for the Other?
Start near 1:1 by amount. The heat ranges are close enough that flavor, form, and recipe role matter more than a strict Scoville conversion.
Growing Peppadew Pepper vs Cherry Pepper
Growing notes
Peppadew Pepper
Growing true Peppadew is less straightforward than growing a standard garden pepper because the brand and licensing history complicate seed sourcing. For home growers, the practical question is usually whether you can source a sweet piquante or Juanita-type seed line and whether your season is long enough to finish the fruit properly.
Oregon State University Extension lists Sweet Piquante under Capsicum baccatum and notes that baccatum peppers benefit from warmth and season extension in cooler climates. That tracks with the Rutgers proceedings work on Peppadew production in New Jersey, which reported roughly 120 days for the gold line and a much longer 160-day production period for the red piquante line.
Treat it like a warm-season, long-run crop. Start seed indoors 8 to 10 weeks before the last frost, transplant only after settled warmth, and give the plants the brightest spot you have.
Growing notes
Cherry Pepper
Cherry peppers are reliable producers that suit both container growing and in-ground beds. Plants typically reach 18–24 inches tall and produce heavily once established.
Start seeds indoors 8–10 weeks before last frost - the timing guidance for pepper planting applies directly here. Germination happens fastest at soil temperatures around 80–85°F.
Full sun is non-negotiable - at least 6–8 hours daily. They're less fussy about soil than some varieties, though consistent moisture prevents the blossom-end rot that affects thick-walled types.
Where They Come From
Origin & background
Peppadew Pepper
South Africa · C. baccatum
The official PEPPADEW materials place the discovery story in South Africa in the mid 1990s. Their FAQ says the brand was created after the discovery of the Piquante Pepper, and their product page repeats the same broad timeline.
A 2013 Rutgers NJAES proceedings paper adds useful detail and also shows why this history gets repeated loosely. That paper describes Peppadew as a sweet-tangy Capsicum baccatum fruit discovered about 16 years earlier in Tzaneen, South Africa, then developed into a licensed commercial crop.
Origin & background
Cherry Pepper
USA · C. annuum
Cherry peppers have been cultivated in the United States for well over a century, though their exact origin story is less dramatic than many heritage varieties. They became fixtures in Italian-American cooking communities, particularly in the Northeast, where pickling and antipasto traditions kept demand steady.
The compact round shape and thick walls made them ideal for home preservation - qualities that home canners and commercial pickle producers both valued. By the mid-20th century, jarred cherry peppers had become a supermarket staple across the country.
Buying & Storage
Whether you’re shopping for Peppadew Pepper or Cherry Pepper, the same quality indicators apply. Fresh peppers should feel firm and heavy for their size, with taut, glossy skin and no soft or wet spots. Minor stem cracks known as “corking” are perfectly normal and often indicate a mature, flavorful pod.
Selection
What to look for
Firm pods with taut skin and consistent color
Should feel heavy relative to size
Minor stem cracks (“corking”) are normal
Avoid anything soft, shriveled, or with dark wet spots
Storage
How to store them
Fresh: Paper bag, crisper drawer, 1 to 2 weeks
Frozen: Wash, dry, freeze on sheet pan, 6+ months
Dried: Airtight and away from light, up to 1 year
Mistakes to avoid
Common misses
Peppadew Pepper
Equating green with unripe. Different products.
Overcooking. Cell walls break down fast.
Sealed plastic storage. Causes rot. Use paper bags.
Common misses
Cherry Pepper
Equating green with unripe. Different products.
Overcooking. Cell walls break down fast.
Sealed plastic storage. Causes rot. Use paper bags.
Final call
Peppadew Pepper vs Cherry Pepper
Peppadew Pepper and Cherry Pepper
sit in the same heat tier but serve different roles. Peppadew Pepper delivers about 1.3× more upper-range heat with its distinctive sweet, tangy, and lightly brined character.
Cherry Pepper, with its sweet and mild profile, excels in everyday cooking.
Heat gap about 1.3× by upper rangePeppadew Pepper sweet, tangy, and lightly brinedCherry Pepper sweet and mild
Peppadew narrows the buyer's expectation. The name is tied to a South African sweet-heat product, usually brined and ready to eat. Cherry pepper is a wider category: sweet, hot, stuffed, sliced, whole, fresh-packed, or heavily vinegared.
That makes this a control question. Peppadew pepper gives consistency. Cherry pepper gives options, but the jar has to be read.
Brine As Ingredient
Peppadew's brine is not background liquid. It seasons cream cheese, mozzarella, salami, pizza, and grain bowls even after the pepper is drained.
Cherry pepper brine is a variable. A sweet jar may taste mild and fruity. A hot deli jar may be sharper, saltier, and more vinegar-forward.
That is why the same substitution can fail in opposite directions. Peppadew can make a deli-style dish too sweet. Cherry pepper can make a cheese filling too sharp.
Taste the liquid before measuring the peppers. The brine often changes the food more than the pepper wall does.
Heat Exception
Peppadew is listed at 280-650 SHU, while cherry pepper is listed here at 100-500 SHU, so the normal heat answer is simple: both are mild. The exception is jar category. Hot cherry peppers can outrun that sweet-profile expectation, while Peppadew usually stays predictable for party boards and heat-sensitive guests.
Stuffing Scenario
Stuffing separates convenience from control. Peppadew is quick: drain, pat dry, fill with goat cheese or mozzarella, and the pepper already brings sweet tang.
Cherry pepper asks for more choice. A whole hot cherry can handle heavier deli fillings such as provolone and prosciutto, and its wall gives a firmer chew.
Choose Peppadew when the filling should stay simple. Choose cherry pepper when the stuffed bite needs more resistance, salt, or heat.
Control Rule
Consistency favors Peppadew: snack boards, pizza, simple cheese fillings, and salads where sweet tang should be predictable. Control favors cherry pepper: hoagies, antipasto, sausage dishes, and any recipe where sweet versus hot or whole versus sliced matters.
For the nearby mild red pepper question, the cherry pepper and pimento comparison handles a different split: firm pickled bite versus soft sweet pepper body.
Fact-Checked & Expert Reviewed
Editorial Standards: Head-to-head comparisons include blind tasting when applicable. Heat levels cross-referenced with multiple sources. All substitution ratios tested side-by-side.
Review Process:
Written by
Marco Castillo
(Founder & Lead Reviewer)
, reviewed by
Karen Liu
(Lead Fact-Checker & Science Editor)
. Last updated June 29, 2026.
Peppadew Pepper vs Cherry Pepper FAQ
No. Peppadew is a trademarked South African sweet-heat pepper product, while cherry pepper is a broader category of round peppers that may be sweet, hot, fresh, pickled, or stuffed.
Peppadew is listed at 280-650 SHU and cherry pepper at 100-500 SHU in this database. Hot cherry pepper jars can taste stronger than sweet jars, so check the label.
Yes, if the jar is sweet and pickled. Adjust for brine: add a little sweetness if the cherry pepper is too sharp, or use less if the jar says hot.
Peppadew is easier for quick cheese appetizers. Whole cherry peppers are better when the filling is heavier or when the pepper needs a firmer bite.
