If you live here long enough, you will meet at least one person, maybe several, who sell datil pepper sauce. You may ask yourself why. I have. It turns out that almost all of the datil peppers grown in the world are grown right here in St. Johns County.
The datil pepper is a yellow-orange, heirloom capsicum chinense pepper known for its sweet, fruity and tangy flavor. The datil is a hot pepper, rating “very hot” on the Scoville scale scoring between 100,000 – 300,000 SHU, similar to the habanero. The peppers require lots of sun and a long hot growing season, something our area provides.
The mystery is how they got here in the first place. There are several legends. The South loves its legends. Famed local author Ernie Mickler once said that the South is “legend, upon legend, upon legend.” Some of his relatives still sell datil peppers today.
The favorite legend is that datil peppers arrived with the Minorcans. Following the Seven Years War, which we called the French and Indian War, England acquired territories that included Florida and Minorca in 1763. In 1768, a Scotsman named Dr. Andrew Turnbull, obtained 100,000 acres of South Florida land on the Atlantic Coast. Turnbull recruited 1,400 settlers, many from Minorca, the Mediterranean island off the coast of Spain that had recently fallen under British rule. These first settlers were all indentured servants.
The voyage was harsh. Hundreds of the settlers lost their lives on the voyage. They settled in New Smyrna. Turnbull named the colony after his wife’s birthplace in present day Turkey. Life was hard. Many more died. Turnbull attempted to recruit more settlers but could not replace the losses of an unforgiving environment. In 1777, the remaining settlers revolted and marched north to St. Augustine where they were accepted by the British governor.
The legend grew that the datil travelled with the Minorcans from the Mediterranean, or perhaps with their Mandingo slaves from Africa or Cuba. The problem is that the datil does not grow in the Mediterranean, or in Africa. The only place it grows is here in St. Johns County.
A second legend points toward a jelly maker from Cuba named Esteban B. Valls. He arrived in St. Augustine in 1880. His use of the datil is the first recorded historical use of the pepper. Valls grew the peppers in his garden, and they became popular with the large Minorcan community in St. Augustine. The Minorcans used the datil in a tomato-based seafood chowder called Minorcan chowder that is still served today. The datil is a similar to the habanero. The name habanero comes from Havana. So, it is more likely that the datil came from Cuba than from Minorca.
The only place in the world where you can find this pepper is here in St Augustine and the surrounding area. That has led some to claim that the spicy hot pepper “originated and came from St. Augustine.”
Scott A Grant is a local author and historian. His articles appear regularly in The Recorder. He welcomes your comments at scottg@standfastic.com.
