I received a box of sample plants from plant breeding company PanAmerican Seed earlier this spring. Among the many items—both flower and vegetable plants—were two pots of a brand-new sweet pepper called Mad Hatter Pepper. Its schtick is it has a funny triangular-hat shape, like the soldiers in the Revolutionary War wore. Big deal, right? So I planted them to see what would emerge.

All-America Selections Winner

The fact that Mad Hatter Pepper won a 2017 All-America Selection Award for veggies had somehow escaped me prior to planting—or I had just forgotten. AAS had selected this as an award winner for “the plant’s vigor, earliness, high yields, large size and awesome taste,” the announcement on its website says. Of course, I just found that description at the end of the growing season.

And you know what? Mad Hatter is just about everything AAS says it is. While my plants might not have been wonderfully vigorous (I suspect the AAS Trial Gardens are maintained a bit better than mine), the yields off of those two plants were fantastic. I’m swimming in Mad Hatters! And yes, they were my earliest pepper to harvest this year. Typically my pepper plants don’t fruit until August. These were ready a full month before the other types.

What Sets Mad Hatter Pepper Apart

The flavor and texture aren’t only nice, but they are just different from other sweet peppers. That’s because Mad Hatter is developed from a baccatum species of the Capsicum genus, or pepper. These are used quite a bit in South American cooking. The walls of the pepper are thinner than your basic green or red pepper. The flavor is mild but not bland, with bits of citrus notes to it (I sound like a wine snob). The first time I tasted Mad Hatter was when I sliced it thinly and put on top of a pizza I was making. Cooking for just a few moments, the heat added the slightest hint of caramelized flavor. Another bonus for Mad Hatter is they change colors from a yellowy green through orange to red—and you can harvest anywhere along that color spectrum! All of those colors would look so cool added to a slaw, don’t you think? I’m also planning on pickling the ones remaining on the vine before our first frost. Yum.

Sometime during the summer I realized I had found a more-than-suitable substitute for the green and red peppers I somehow keep trying to grow each year. “Traditional” sweet peppers only produce a few per plant, produce later in the season, and somehow never truly ripen. I’m sticking with Mad Hatter.

If I were to say a negative about Mad Hatter it would be that because of the triangular shape, they are awkward to slice. Be careful with that knife and bone up on your slicing skills.