As a child, my Malaysian grandmother would take me to the local market. There, we would spend time inspecting every piece of fruit and vegetable, just as only an Asian grandmother knows how. She would weigh the papayas, analyze the patterns on every watermelon, and pull the leaves of pineapples to assess their quality.

Fast forward over 30 years, and I see $200 yoga pant influencers on social media using many of her techniques at farmer’s markets.

Nowadays, these techniques are not only simple but also scientifically sound. However, it’s the vibrant ones that tend to go viral. One popular tip circulating on my social media feed claims that the number of bumps at the base of a pepper is indicative of its flavor. Supposedly, “female” peppers with four bumps are sweeter and better raw, while “male” peppers with three bumps are sweeter and ideal for cooking.

To clarify, peppers are not strictly divided into “male” and “female” in a biological sense. Pepper fruits are the fertilized ovaries of flowering plants, which, like 90% of all plants, contain both male and female components.

However, this explanation doesn’t entirely negate the cultural aspect of categorizing these plants. In traditional remedies, numerous plant varieties are designated as “male” or “female.” Genetics suggests that various plants indeed appear subtly different.

Moreover, the number of lobes in a pepper is largely a genetic trait of the variety. While it is far from a strict binary classification, peppers can have anywhere from one to six or more lobes.

So, do four-lobed peppers really taste sweeter than those with three lobes? After extensively reviewing the literature, we were unable to find any studies correlating sugar content with the number of lobes in pepper fruits.

What we do know is that, like most fruits, their sweetness is closely linked to ripeness. Ripening, from green to red, affects flavor, and bitter-tasting alkaloids may mask sweetness as well.

Ironically, these bitter compounds are concentrated in the placenta, which is the white membrane found between the folds of each pepper. Thus, the more lobes a pepper has, the less likely it is to taste sweet. Sorry, influencers.

James Wong is a botanist and science writer with a keen interest in food crops, conservation, and the environment. Trained at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, London, he lives in a small flat filled with over 500 houseplants. You can follow him on X and Instagram @BotanyGeek.

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