DESCRIPTION

Although Hungarian paprika is more familiar to most people, it was actually the Spanish who first produced the powder, after Columbus and other explorers brought chile peppers back to Spain from Mexico. Paprika is in the nightshade family, and there are many different varieties of the plant, bearing fruits of different shapes and sizes. Some of them look like small bell peppers, others are
heart shaped, and still others look like long thin chiles; most are low on the Scoville heat scale. The main sources of paprika today are Hungary and Spain, but Israel, Portugal, Morocco, and the United States are also notable producers.