If the contents of many a supermarket shelf were to be believed, there are just two kinds of Chile peppers: red ones and green ones.

Nothing, of course, could be further from the truth. There are several thousand different Chiles world wide, many of them as yet unnamed and many more not yet fully identified, swelling the numbers even further. Colours range from dark brown and dark green (almost black), through purple, red, orange and yellow, to cream and seemingly translucent white. Variety in shape, on the other hand, is so great it might as well be infinite.

Thankfully, all this exterior diversity is matched by as wide a range of texture, taste and pungency, more than enough to keep the most demanding cooks and most fastidious of gourmets endlessly diverted and excited by as many fresh tastes and novel combinations that imaginative use of the widest range of Chiles can afford.

The 291 varieties (out of 511 varieties of Chile that currently make up the SoilMates™ Chile Collection) we actively offer for the 2006 season are clearly but the tip of the Chile iceberg — be it a tip we’re expanding by several tens of varieties, year on year — but it has to be a major advance on “just red ones and green ones”, if nothing else..?

The genus Capsicum, of which the Chiles are a part, is a very large one, and of the five principal species that make up the Chile (and sweet/bell pepper) “family” — C. annuum, C. baccatum, C. chinense, C.frutescens and C. pubescens — the Annuums outnumber the remaining four species by an order of magnitude as even a cursory glance at our listings will readily demonstrate. Don’t be blinded by sheer number, though: the remaining four species harbour some of the finest treasures of the Chile world, without which our culinary world would be a very much blander place indeed.

In order to help you make your selection from the SoilMates™ Chile Collection, the peppers have been grouped above according to the species of Capsicum they belong to. You can of course also use the site search facility to check for specific varieties you are already familiar with.

If you have difficulty in locating a specific variety, or feel beset by another matter you would like our assistance with, please contact us and we will be delighted to help in whatever way we can.

Meanwhile, please explore the collection to your heart’s content. If variety is indeed the spice of life, Chiles aren’t backward in coming forward with either of these desirable qualities!