A chameleon-like pepper that undergoes color changes during ripening; violet to pinkish-flesh color, then orange changing to brown, and eventually to a deep red. The long, round pods reach 6–7 in. in length and undergo a unique flavor change as they ripen, with the reds being more sweet and meatier than the violet. The stunning plants also make wonderful potted specimens. Buena Mulatas sprout in 10–14 days and are NOT frost hardy. Harvest ripe peppers consistently to encourage fruit production.
 
Buena Mulatas trace back through Horace Pippin, one of the most influential American artists of the first half of the 20th century, a self-taught painter whose work spans subjects of war, enslavement, racial segregation, landscape, and portraiture. Fortunately for us, his legacy is also a window into the culinary and agricultural tradition of the Black community of the Philadelphia and Baltimore area during that time period, as he was an avid seed collector. Buena Mulatas along with several other varieties were discovered in the basement freezer of William Woys Weaver’s grandfather after his death. Pippin had traded seeds with Weaver’s grandfather in exchange for “bee sting therapy” for a war injury to his arm. William Woys Weaver, well-known seedsman and food historian, grew out the seeds and made them available through his Roughwood Seed Collection from which their popularity has spread.