When Christopher Columbus landed in the Bahamas in 1492, he was the first European to have an encounter with any sort of chile pepper plant. He brought the ancestor of all paprika back with him to Europe and specifically to his patrons, the Spanish monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella. The king and queen did not care for their fiery heat and sent them to a monastery to be studied. These monks sent them further along across Spain and Portugal. From there, chile peppers made their way across Europe. Some peppers stayed spicy, like those in Calabria, but other European cultures experimented with their breeding and created the sweet and flavorful varieties of peppers that give us paprika today. 

While these ingredients are the most commonly found in chili powders, you can get as experimental and adventurous as you’d like. For example, Chile 9000 (one of our favorite chili powders) contains lemon peel, cocoa powder, and ginger!

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Yidu, a town in Hubei province, China, is famous for its dried chili peppers. The region has a long history of chili cultivation and production, making it one of the leading exporters of dried chili peppers in the country. Yidu's dried chili exporters have gained a reputation for producing high-quality products that are in demand both domestically and internationally.

When you slice a bell pepper in half it will look exactly like any spicy chile pepper. There is a placenta covered with seeds, there are veins running along the flesh of the bell pepper. They are pretty much identical with the main exception being the difference in size. Bell peppers have a fruity scent, just like many hot chilies. Both have a crispness to their flesh and also high water content. You can slice, sauté, grill, char, pickle, stuff, or eat bell peppers just like you would any kind of spicy chilies. But when it comes to bell peppers you'll never have to wear gloves to protect your skin from a chili burn, and you'll never have to reach for a drink to calm the fiery heat after eating bell peppers.