OUR STORY
Agua Chiltepin was conceived and born in the Arizona border town of Bisbee, AZ. A couple of crazy cats, inspired by the table chili waters that grace the tables of many a restaurant and home dining room in the great state of Hawaii, set out to create a Southwestern answer to this versatile and beloved condiment staple. Already familiar with the Chiltepin (or chile tepin), the tasty heritage chili pepper native to the Sonoran desert, that graced the fields outside their back door and all along the Mexico border, they decided to concoct their own version of this delicious tonic, using this mother of all chilis (literally!). Agua Chiltepin was born.
Many recipe iterations and hundreds of bloody marys consumed in the name of scientific research later, the recipe for Agua Chiltepin was perfected and this humble, homemade product was presented at the weekly farmers market for the rest of the community to enjoy. This stuff was a hit!
A few years have passed since those early days in Bisbee and Agua Chiltepin headquarters has since moved to the United States very first UNESCO designated “City of Gastronomy”, Tucson, Arizona. Agua Chiltepin is still family owned and operated and we’re proud to say that our product is still hand-crafted in small batches using only the finest of locally-sourced, high quality ingredients. So pick yourself up a bottle of Agua Chiltepin today and be a part of our continuing story… Cheers!
Ingredients
* our chiltepin peppers are wild harvested in the mountains of Sonora, Mexico.
You can buy some of these peppers from us here.
A Little Bit About
A Little Pepper
The Chiltepin (or Chile Tepin) is a potent, pea-sized pepper and the only wild chile native to the US. It is sometimes referred to as the “mother of all peppers.” Capsicum annuum var. glabriusculum is a variety of Capsicum annuum that is native to the U.S. Southwest and northern Mexico. This pepper is difficult to cultivate and is usually harvested from wild stands. In Mexico, the heat of the Chiltepin is called arrebatado (“rapid” or “violent”), because, while the heat is intense, it is not very enduring. Some chile enthusiasts argue that the Tepin can potentially be hotter than the habañero or Red Savina, supported with the numbers reported from Craig Dremann’s Pepper Hotness Test scores.
The chiltepin pepper itself is loaded with healthy nutrients including amino acids such as arginine, glycine, lysine, threonine and cystine. Vitamins A, B, B6, C,E and K are present in trace amounts. One-fourth of the weight of the pepper is fiber. Minerals include copper, iron, zinc and magnesium. The pea-sized berries (peppers) also contain anti-bacterial and anti-fungal agents which act as natural preservatives and may act to combat infection. All in all, the little chiltepin could be called a miracle addition to the normal daily diet.
In recent years the wild chiltepin harvest has been stressed by cold winters and drought conditions and production has often been a fraction of normal. Because of scarcity the chiltepin is garnering the nickname, “Red Gold” with market prices to match. Despite this, we have secured an excellent source of wild harvested peppers from Sonora, and we are pleased to be able to share some of this bounty by selling bulk chiltepin online.
STORING YOUR AGUA CHILTEPIN