Have you had “biquinho peppers”? Probably not under that name.

The first time I had them, I was eating at Birdbox, a quirky fried chicken place serving sandwiches with the chicken claw sticking out (apparently an indication of quality). I remember the sandwich as pretty good, more expensive. However, I remember more the delicious red pepper drops. Tangy, yet not spicy, aromatic? Thoroughly enamored, I asked the cooks where they got them.

Soon I started buying my own online - Roland Foods “Red Sweety Drop Peppers”, then DeLallo “sweet n’ tangy pepper drops”. I’d bring them to work to spice up bland catered lunches, to a bit of gawking by my coworkers (though some just filed it under my growing file of idiosyncrasies).

The next time I encountered them in a restaurant, I saw them in the fried rice at the Michelin-recognized Red Rooster Overtown, in Miami. They served the Christmas meal buffet style, and I went out of my way to pick out as many lil’ red gems as I could without looking disrespectful.

Soon, I began noticing these peppers all over the place. I noticed them on my pepper trio slice at Ace Pizza as “sweetie drop cherry peppers”. I noticed them in the Whole Foods salad bar as “Peruvian peppers”.

That I found them in Whole Foods really characterizes these peppers socioeconomically. You could probably find them cheaply and easily in Peru. Though in the US, you find them mostly at elevated prices in elevated food places.