New Mexico Lumbre Chile Powder, Capsicum annuum, is a hot powder that measures approximately 35,000 Scoville Heat Units (SHU). The Lumbre is the equivalent of a cayenne or tabasco pepper. Once you get behind the up-front heat of the New Mexico Lumbre Chile Powder, you’ll find this pepper has a grassy sweetness, tempered with an earthy undertone that provides a complex flavor profile. Lumbre means “fire” in Mexican slang, but this pepper, with its classic New Mexican flavor below the fire, has so much more to offer than the pleasant burn of a capsaicin-laced pepper.

The Lumbre chile was developed by Jim Lytle and Faron Lytle, a father-son team of chile farmers and members of the Franzoy family, the chile farming dynasty that helped raise the valley around Hatch, New Mexico into an elite chile-growing region. They developed it after 9 years of work, with a minimum five-year trial period to establish its characteristic stability, simply because they wanted to offer a hotter variety of pepper to their chile fans.

Tips From Our Kitchen

Coat party cheese balls with chopped pine nuts and a sprinkling of our New Mexico Lumbre Chile Powder. For extra bang, toss bacon in Lumbre chile powder and bake until crisp; crumble the bacon and add that to the cheese coating. Toss pasta with olive oil, New Mexico Lumbre Chile Powder, lime zest, cotija cheese and some chopped scallions for a New Mexican twist on pasta. Infuse your favorite tequila with Lumbre powder and enjoy a spicy margarita.

Hungry for more information?

What's So Special About New Mexico Chiles?
What Is The Hot Pepper Scale?
How To Build Flavors
A Spicy Guide to New Mexican Cuisine