Customer Reviews

Peppers of the World: An Identification Guide

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After reading "The Pepper Garden" also by Dewitt and Bosland I bought "Peppers of the World: An Identification Guide". The book gives you a very good overall view of the whole pepper family on the planet. Nice photos and good descriptions. However two things are wrong.

First: For each pepper the authors should also have included a photo of the plant and the flower. Without that identification in many cases is almost impossible as many pods resemble each other very much indeed.

Second: The metric conversion chart in the back of the book is wrong. Centimeters and inches must have changed places. The way it is now a 10 inch pepper like for instance Numex Big Jim is about the lenght of a thumb!! I dont think New Mexican commercial growers would like that. Keep that in mind if the publishers are contemplating a new edition.

But otherwise - thanks for a great book which is a must for all pepper fans.

I have recently become interested in peppers and chilis of all types, and my thirst for knowledge on the subject led me to buy books. I have bought some 10 books on the subject, and although other books may appear more glossy and have more 'tales' or recipes (this book has neither, nor is it intended as such), this book has a wealth of colour pictures of just about every conceivable chili. Whilst not claiming to have all varieties within it, it gives a good, structured view on the pepper (capsicum) families and provides a quick and easy reference for identification and description of most varieties. Of all the books I have this is always the first I turn to for information. Well worth the money.

David Dewitt has put out several useful books on peppers. This guide is useful to identify the many many varities and cultivars of hot peppers. While you may not be able to find the seeds to all those cultivars, the book is very useful and the color photos are excellent. Sections divide the different classifications of peppers. If you are into peppers this book may be a necessary reference on your shelf. Also usefuls is Dewitt's book The Pepper Garden.

The perfect companion for "The Pepper Garden" by Dave Dewitt, this beautifully laid out book is extremely comprehensive and includes just about every pepper there is. Excellent photography and information on so many interesting and wonderful peppers. Dewitt truly loved his study and has put together two fantastic books in demonstration of this. Wonderful!

The authors note that there are a few thousands of pepper varieties in the world, yet only list a few hundred. Instead of collecting comprehensive information, they spend several chapters pontificating the history of man's relationship with peppers while noting that no one really knows where they started or who used them or how, and their own version is just sort of a best guess. At the end of the book, there are several pages about the Chiltipin, with some barely educated guesses as to why it has never been domesticated, and a meandering story about a guy that dreams of raising them on a farm with dogs.

Even the few hundred peppers listed are nearly useless for identification. The information provided for each pepper is limited to scientific name, common name, a location (which they say might be where the pepper came from and may not be,) and a comment. The comment proves to be useless since 90% of them simply say "prolific." There is no information about the life cycle of the particular plants, or any unique details that would actually help in identifying an unknown chilli. The single picture included of each chilli is almost always an extreme close-up of the chilli growing on the plant, so of course most of them look similar enough that the picture is only marginally helpful in identification. The few that do have pictures of more than just the chilli are just pictures of the entire bush from far enough back you can't discern any details.

I support the efforts of the authors to catalog chillies and was glad to read about their efforts to increase the USDA seed population. However, since they actually grew many of the chillies they took pictures of, it is a shame they didn't include more pictures or provide any details that would actually help identify one chilli for another. Given the lack of detail in the descriptions, lack of usefulness of the pictures, and lack of cohesive thought in the reading, I can't really recommend this book for much more than looking interesting on your coffee table.