Pepper School: Morita
Welcome to Pepper School, take a seat. Today we will be learning about the morita.
Heat Level? The heat level of morita chiles ranges from 3,000-10,000 Scoville Heat Units, that’s a medium-low heat.
A morita is a type of chipotle, a smoke-dried jalapeño. Moritas are made from red, ripe jalapeño peppers. With rich chocolate and tobacco aromas, the morita is smoky, nutty and slightly fruit, perfect with fatty meats.
Which of our recipes use morita chiles? You can find ground morita used in the following items:
So where do we find these high-quality morita peppers? Obviously we aren’t a farm, but we have some pretty great connections to hard-working pepper farmers. GC Produce, our Colorado neighbor, connects us to these growers. Started by a family of farmers, GC Produce is our morita and arbol supplier and has been a business partner with us for over 20 years.
They provide over two million pounds of dried peppers to Ready Foods each year. The GC family started farming in the 1940’s near the beautiful city of Mazatlan Sinaloa in Mexico. Today, they operate a state-of-the-art screening facility and use their experience to travel the world and source high-quality peppers and spices.
Great peppers and chiles start in the field and that’s where GC Produce begins, sourcing and screening the peppers while they are still growing. GC Produce is the eyes and ears for a company like us, they are on the ground, working with farmers to make sure the peppers are flavorful and sanitary. From seeds to the time a smoked and dried pepper comes through our doors, they have been auditing the process the whole way. They are the bridge between us and the farmer, connecting us with quality ingredients.
Once a morita pepper crop is approved by GC Produce and harvested, it is exposed to an open flame and quality wood for 10 days to undergo smoking. After it is smoked, it heads to GC’s facility in Colorado where it goes through rigorous screening under metal detectors, sifters, and the important human eye test. Once the smoked peppers come to Ready Foods, we put them through additional screening and then grind them to order and make them into delicious sauces and more.
You can find our Morita Salsa through broadline distributors in states like Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Nebraska and more.