Description
Sri Lanka Country Collection
Three Peppers. One Island. A Collection Built From Our Travels Through Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka is a country where peppers are difficult to separate from the food, markets, agriculture, and everyday life.
During our travels across the island, we encountered peppers in crowded produce markets, roadside restaurants, mountain towns, local farms, railway stations, and meals prepared along the way.
Some were familiar.
Others sent us down research rabbit holes that continued long after we returned home.
The Sri Lanka Country Collection brings together three of those peppers—each representing a different piece of our experience exploring the island.
Inside you’ll find Nai Miris Cobra Chili, Puna Miris, and Sri Lanka Chili Red.
Three peppers.
Three stories.
One destination in your Pepper Passport.
Explore Sri Lanka Through Peppers
Sri Lanka’s relationship with chili runs deep.
Fresh green peppers appear throughout the country’s cooking, while ripe and dried chilies form an important part of countless dishes and spice preparations. But traveling through the country also revealed something much more interesting than simply finding “Sri Lankan peppers.”
There is diversity.
Different peppers appear in different places and serve different purposes. Behind some are local traditions. Behind others are decades of Sri Lankan agricultural selection and breeding.
And occasionally, behind one is a troop of macaques stealing soda while breakfast cooks downstairs.
These three varieties preserve a small piece of that experience.
🌶 Nai Miris Cobra Chili
Capsicum chinense — Kandy, Sri Lanka
Nai Miris was one of the few Capsicum chinense peppers we encountered during our travels through Sri Lanka.
We found it in Kandy, in the mountainous center of the island.
The plants produce enormous leaves and impressive yields of thick-walled, exceptionally juicy fruit. The ripe peppers have a sweet, fruity character followed by the unmistakable pungency of C. chinense.
They immediately reminded us of Hoyt Saxton’s Pumpkin Habanero.
Our memories of Nai Miris are inseparable from mornings in Kandy—mountain air, dhal cooking downstairs, and troops of macaques moving across the rooftops.
Sliced thinly into a fresh bowl of Sri Lankan dhal, the pepper made considerably more sense than it ever could sitting in a seed catalog.
Species: Capsicum chinense
Heat: Hot
Flavor: Sweet, fruity, juicy
Origin: Kandy, Sri Lanka
Seeds: 25+
🌶 Puna Miris
Capsicum annuum — Sri Lanka
Puna Miris entered our collection through one of the more ridiculous moments of the trip.
While we were trying to continue toward Ella Rock, a local street hustler decided Jen needed a macaque placed on her shoulder—a service neither of us had requested and one we both knew would shortly be followed by a demand for payment.
While the monkey situation unfolded, something else caught my attention.
A nearby produce vendor was packing up for the day.
Among her baskets were some of the best Puna Miris peppers I had seen during the trip.
A few ended up on the ground.
The vendor loaded into a truck and disappeared.
Ground loot.
Puna Miris is a meaty Capsicum annuum associated with Sri Lankan agricultural material known as HCA-01. Its substantial flesh, approachable heat, and versatility make it a true culinary pepper.
Pods mature to a deep red and work beautifully fresh, pickled, made into sauces, or dehydrated for seasoning.
Species: Capsicum annuum
Heat: Mild
Flavor: Rich pepper flavor with approachable heat
Origin: Sri Lanka
Seeds: 25+
🌶 Sri Lanka Chili Red
Capsicum annuum — Kandy, Sri Lanka
This is the pepper that seemed to follow us everywhere.
Markets.
Roadside buffets.
Farms.
Restaurants.
Railway stations.
Fresh, green, ripe, dried, salted—its form changed, but whenever we asked what it was called, the answer was remarkably simple:
“Chili.”
Our Sri Lanka Chili Red accession produces wide-spreading, highly productive plants loaded with thick, juicy fruit. The peppers develop excellent flavor while still green and mature into beautifully red pods with remarkable sweetness, fruitiness, and pleasant heat.
Its exact identity has also become something of an ongoing investigation.
Our original research files from 2018 grouped the Kandy material alongside several Sri Lankan agricultural lines we were investigating, including MI-1, MI-2, MICH-1, MICH-2, MICH-3, KA-2, and Galkiriyagama Selection.
The resemblance is intriguing, but we have never had documentation establishing our accession as any one of those named releases.
So we preserve it under the name supported by what we actually know:
Sri Lanka Chili Red.
Its exact pedigree may remain unresolved. Its connection to our travels through Sri Lanka does not.
Species: Capsicum annuum
Heat: Hot
Flavor: Sweet, fruity, juicy with pleasant heat
Origin: Kandy, Sri Lanka
Seeds: 25+
What’s Included
Every Sri Lanka Country Collection contains one seed pack of each:
Nai Miris Cobra Chili Pepper Seeds — 25+ seeds
Puna Miris Pepper Seeds — 25+ seeds
Sri Lanka Chili Red Pepper Seeds — 25+ seeds
That’s three distinct Sri Lankan peppers and at least 75 seeds total.
Pollination status is documented for the seed lot included with each variety. We prioritize isolated seed whenever available, but individual seed lots may vary according to current inventory.
More Than a Seed Bundle
The Pepper Passport wasn’t created simply to put several seed packets into the same envelope.
It’s about exploring Capsicum through place.
Every Country Collection connects peppers with the people, food, landscapes, agriculture, and stories surrounding them.
Some varieties have well-documented agricultural histories. Others survive through local cultivation. Some raise questions that take years of growing, comparison, and research to unravel.
The goal isn’t merely to collect them.
It’s to grow them.
Taste them.
Learn their stories.
And understand peppers as part of the places from which they came.
Sri Lanka is one stop on that journey.
Your Sri Lanka Passport Destination
This collection represents Sri Lanka within the Pepper Passport program.
Grow all three varieties and explore the differences between a fruity C. chinense, a meaty mild C. annuum, and the versatile red chili type we encountered throughout the island.
For Pepper Passport holders, Sri Lanka becomes another destination in a growing collection of peppers from around the world.
Country: Sri Lanka 🇱🇰
Varieties: 3
Species represented: Capsicum annuum and Capsicum chinense
Minimum seed count: 75+ total
Collection type: Curated Country Collection
Why Grow the Sri Lanka Country Collection?
- Three distinctly different peppers connected to Sri Lanka
- Two Capsicum annuum varieties and one Capsicum chinense
- At least 25 seeds of each variety
- 75+ seeds total
- Sweet, fruity, mild, hot, meaty, and juicy characteristics represented across the collection
- Varieties connected directly to our travels through Sri Lanka
- Explore peppers through food, agriculture, provenance, and place
- One complete destination in the Pepper Passport program
- Exclusive to Pepper Guru Members and Passport Holders
🌎 Your next pepper journey starts in Sri Lanka.
Grow the collection, taste the differences, discover the stories behind the peppers, and add another destination to your Pepper Passport.