Sugar Drop Orange

Sugar Drop Orange

Sugar Drop Orange is a cross between Sugar Rush Peach and Lemon Drop. The result is a Capsicum baccatum with a lot of sweetness, good citrus flavor, and a little heat behind it.

Growing Conditions and Characteristics

These plants can get big. Really big. Around 6 feet tall and 4 feet wide is possible if you let them go.

They handle a pretty wide range of growing conditions, with the obvious exception of frost… which is true for basically every pepper. They respond well to pruning if you want to keep them under control, and staking is a good idea once the plant starts loading up with fruit.

Sugar Drop Orange also has a nice long season. It tends to be one of the earlier peppers to ripen and can keep producing pretty late into the year.

Heat, Flavor, and Uses

Heat is generally estimated around 20,000 to 30,000 SHU. From the ones I have tasted, I would put them toward the lower end of that range.

Flavor is where this pepper gets interesting. You get some of the citrus from Lemon Drop and a lot of the sweetness from Sugar Rush Peach. It is definitely not just another hot pepper.

The pods are very good fresh if you can handle the heat. They also make an excellent hot sauce pepper. Dried and ground, they produce a surprisingly sweet powder with almost a candy-like flavor.

This variety is getting pretty close to stable, but there may still be a little variation from plant to plant.

20,000–30,000 SHU. This is an estimate. Scoville ratings can vary with growing conditions.