Peppers · Dried Jalapeño
Morita
Smoky, with a somewhat sweet, chocolaty aroma, in Spices Inc.'s description.
2,500 to 8,000 SHU, per Pepper Scale. Spices Inc. rates its chipotle moritas far higher, at 15,000 to 30,000, and Fiery Foods gives chipotles in general 5,000 to 10,000. Log scale against the hottest chile in this guide.
The morita is a ripe red jalapeño smoked until dry but left pliable. Mora means mulberry or blackberry, and the small, dark, purplish-red pod takes its name from the fruit. It is one of the two main kinds of chipotle.
Fiery Foods' glossary defines mora as a smoked red serrano or jalapeño that stays pliable, called morita in many parts of Mexico. It also lists morita as a cultivated variety of jalapeño that is smoked. Mike Stines, writing for Fiery Foods, sets mora or morita beside chile ahumado, or típico, as the two main kinds of chipotle. The típico takes the stronger smoke.
Milk Street calls moritas a type of chipotle and says all chipotles have assertive heat. Spices Inc. describes its moritas as ripe red jalapeños dried and then lightly smoked, dark red, about nine to the ounce. Whole dried pods are soaked in hot water before they are blended.
Published heat ratings disagree widely. Pepper Scale gives 2,500 to 8,000 Scoville units, a fresh jalapeño’s range. Spices Inc. lists 15,000 to 30,000. Fiery Foods puts chipotles in general at 5,000 to 10,000.
Sources
- Glossary of Chile Pepper Terms (Fiery Foods & Barbecue Central)
- Making Chipotles at Home (Mike Stines, Fiery Foods & Barbecue Central)
- A Guide to Dried Chilis (Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street)
- Chipotle Morita Chiles (Spices Inc.)
- Morita Pepper Guide: Heat, Flavor, Uses (Pepper Scale)
- Carne con Chile Burritos (Pati Jinich, recipe from Lourdes Sánchez of Soto’s Outpost)