The Mexican Chilli System: A Taxonomy

Chillies were first cultivated in Mexico approximately 8,000 years ago. The Aztec market in Tenochtitlan (modern Mexico City) — documented by Hernán Cortés in the 16th century — already had dozens of varieties of chilli for sale. The Spanish brought Mexican chillies to Europe and Asia, where they were adopted with extraordinary speed — within 100 years, chilli had become central to Indian, Southeast Asian, Hungarian, and Korean cooking. The word "chilli" comes from the Nahuatl chīlli. · Presentation And Philosophy