paprika (smoked)

Brick red and slightly clumpy, this rich-looking smoked Spanish paprika powder is from the La Vera region. As the name would suggest, this spice's flavor profile is smoky and not as sweet as Hungarian paprikas. Instead, it has a complex savoriness. It has woodsy notes with a slight touch of heat and a sharp finish. In America it is a favorite for BBQ sauces and meat rubs.

All Capsicum annuum paprika peppers originated in the Central America region but there's conflicting stories on how they were brought to different parts of Europe. In Spain, there's a legend that the peppers were a gift to King Ferdinand by Christopher Columbus in the form of seeds. When the planted seeds grow to peppers that didn't ripen properly, monks then tried to compensate by smoking them. Another plausible legend is that it was the monks themselves that brought the seeds back from the Americas after their missionary work.

Whatever the methodology for their arrival in Spain, it became customary to smoke the peppers over oak fires giving them a distinctive campfire quality.

Like all paprikas the powder is a result of blends of types of peppers. In Spain the most common types blended include Bola (Cascabel), Jeromin, Jariza, Jaranda chiles. Depending on the mix this will yield either sweet (dulce); bittersweet (agridulce); or picante (hot) paprika powders.