American Samoa

In American Samoa, hot peppers thrive in the humid tropics but remain mostly a backyard crop, similar in type and heat to Hawaiian chili pepper (a small Capsicum frutescens, 60,000–80,000 SHU) and Southeast Asian bird’s eye chilies.

There is little formal pepper industry; villagers interplant chiles with taro, bananas, and breadfruit, selling surplus at local markets. Fresh bird’s eye–type peppers are minced into chili-lime-onion relishes served with grilled or fried reef fish and roasted breadfruit or taro.

Chiles also season coconut-based dishes, adding brightness and heat to palusami-style preparations and seafood stews. Families often make simple table sauces by steeping these small, fiery pods in vinegar or brine.

A few small entrepreneurs bottle hot sauces and chili pepper water inspired by Hawaiian traditions, marketing them to tourists and local shops, but overall use centers on homegrown, generic bird’s eye–style chilies rather than named export cultivars.