Chipotle is not a separate variety of chilli — it is a jalapeño pepper that has been dried and smoked, a process that transforms both its flavour and character entirely. The fresh green jalapeños are left to ripen fully on the plant, then dried and smoked slowly over pecan wood. This turns them from bright green to a deep, leathery brown and replaces the sharp, clean heat of a fresh jalapeño with something altogether richer: a sweet, rounded smokiness with a lingering warmth rated 6/10 on the Scoville scale. The result is one of the most versatile and widely used chillies in Mexican cuisine, where it forms the backbone of countless meat dishes and sauces.

These crushed chipotle flakes work across a broad range of cooking. They bring smoky depth to stews, moles, chilli con carne, and slow-cooked braises. They're equally good stirred into tomato sauces, mixed into dry rubs for grilled and barbecued meat, or used to flavour oils and vinegars. The smoky character also crosses borders easily — Chipotle sits just as comfortably in African and Indian-influenced dishes as it does in Latin American cooking.

Producer: Terre Exotique, a French spice house founded in 1998 after its founder discovered Penja pepper on a plantation in Cameroon. The company sources directly from growers worldwide and processes at its facility in France, maintaining close relationships with producers to ensure traceability and quality across its range.

Storage: Ambient. Store in a dry place at room temperature.

Net: 70g