Peppadew is the pickled sweet-heat choice for antipasto, cheese fillings, and bright salads. Piquillo is the roasted Spanish choice for tapas, stuffed peppers, sauces, and warmer savory dishes.
Peppadew Pepper measures 280-650 SHU while Piquillo Pepper registers 500-1K SHU. That makes Piquillo Pepper about 1.5x hotter by upper SHU range.
Peppadew Pepper is known for its sweet, tangy, and lightly brined flavor (Capsicum baccatum), while Piquillo Pepper offers sweet and smoky notes (Capsicum annuum).
| Attribute | Peppadew Pepper | Piquillo Pepper |
|---|---|---|
| Scoville evidence | 280-650 SHU | 500-1K SHU |
| Heat Tier | Mild | Medium |
| vs Jalapeño | n/a | n/a |
| Flavor | sweet, tangy, and lightly brined | sweet and smoky |
| Species | C. baccatum | C. annuum |
| Origin | South Africa | Spain |
Piquillo Pepper is about 1.5× hotter than Peppadew Pepper. They fall in different heat tiers: Peppadew Pepper is classified as mild while Piquillo Pepper sits in the medium range.
Peppadew Pepper spans 280–650 SHU. Piquillo Pepper spans 500–1K SHU.
Peppadew Pepper (Capsicum baccatum) and Piquillo Pepper (Capsicum 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. Piquillo Pepper leans sweet and smoky, which can change the sauce, filling, marinade, or garnish even when the heat range looks close.
Best fit
Best fit
Growing notes
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
Growing piquillos is straightforward if you're in a warm climate, they share the same needs as most Capsicum annuum varieties. Start seeds indoors 8 to 10 weeks before last frost.
Transplant outdoors once nighttime temps stay above 55°F. Piquillos need full sun and well-drained soil with a pH of 6.
For practical guidance on how long peppers grow from transplant to harvest, piquillos typically reach maturity in 80 to 90 days. They start green and ripen to a deep red.
The official PEPPADEW materials place the discovery story in South Africa in the mid 1990s.
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.
Piquillo peppers have been cultivated in the Ebro River valley of northern Spain for centuries, with the Lodosa region of Navarra becoming their spiritual home. The DOP designation, protecting the name and production methods, was established in 1987, formalizing what local growers had practiced for generations.
The tradition of wood-fire roasting over embers (rather than gas or electric heat) is what separates authentic piquillos from imitations.
Selection
Storage
Common misses
Common misses
Peppadew Pepper and Piquillo Pepper occupy very different positions on the heat spectrum. Piquillo Pepper delivers about 1.5× more upper-range heat with its distinctive sweet and smoky character.
Peppadew Pepper, with its sweet, tangy, and lightly brined profile, excels in everyday cooking.
Open the jar and taste the liquid first. Peppadew lives in sweet brine from the South African pepper role, so its acid and sugar are part of the ingredient. Drain it completely and you still taste pickle.
Piquillo usually arrives roasted, peeled, and packed with a softer pepper liquid. The jar supports the roasted flesh instead of defining the whole bite.
That is why Peppadew versus cherry pepper is a pickle question, while this page is a pickle-versus-roast question.
Stuffing exposes the difference quickly. Peppadew stays snappy and sweet when filled cold with goat cheese, cream cheese, or herbed ricotta.
Piquillo is better warmed. Its thinner roasted wall folds around salt cod, tuna, braised meat, or mushrooms, then takes sauce without fighting the filling.
Peppadew brings brightness first. The mild heat is secondary to sugar, vinegar, and the round baccatum fruit note.
Piquillo brings roast first. Good jarred piquillos taste sweet and smoky, with a soft texture that can disappear into a pan sauce.
Species explains part of the split. Peppadew is tied to C. baccatum flavor, while piquillo is a C. annuum pepper from the Spanish roast tradition.
Do not swap them by color. Both can be red and mild, but one adds brine while the other adds roasted body, the same job that separates it from pimento-style sweet peppers.
A 1:1 volume swap works only after you repair the missing piece. Replacing Peppadew with piquillo usually needs a little vinegar and sugar. Replacing piquillo with Peppadew or a piquillo substitute often needs draining and less added acid.
For warm tapas, start with piquillo. For cold boards or bright chopped salads, start with Peppadew and let the brine count as seasoning.
Buy by label, not by vague red-pepper wording. PEPPADEW brand or sweet piquante points to the South African pickled product, while Pimiento del Piquillo de Lodosa points to the Spanish roasted role.
