Lebanon

Lebanon’s Mediterranean climate and fertile Bekaa Valley support robust pepper production, including sweet bells and hot annuum types such as long green and red chilies, small hot peppers for shatta, and Aleppo-style chilies.

Farmers grow cultivars similar to Turkish sivri, Aleppo, and cayenne for fresh and dried use. In Lebanese cuisine, hot peppers appear in shatta (a chili-garlic paste), muhammara (red pepper–walnut dip sometimes spiked with Aleppo-style chili), and spicy versions of hummus and labneh.

Long green chilies are grilled or fried and served with lemon and salt, or pickled whole (filfil makbous) as mezze. Dried red chilies, comparable to Aleppo pepper, are coarsely ground and used to flavour kibbeh, man’oushe toppings, and stews.

While Lebanon does not market its own named hot-pepper cultivar internationally, its use of Aleppo-type and local long green chilies is central to Levantine flavours.