Peppers are commonly broken down into three groupings: bell peppers, sweet peppers, and hot peppers. Most popular pepper varieties are seen as falling into one of these categories or as a cross between them.

Cultivars grown in North America and Europe are believed to all derive from Capsicum annuum, and have white, yellow, red or purple to black fruits. In 2016, the world’s production of raw green chili peppers amounted to 34.5 million tons, with China producing half.

Capsicum fruits have been a part of human diets since about 7,500 BC, and are one of the oldest cultivated crops in the Americas,[7] as origins of cultivating chili peppers are traced to east-central Mexico some 6,000 years ago.They were one of the first self-pollinating crops cultivated in Mexico, Central America, and parts of South America.