When you order a pizza from Papa John's, have you ever noticed that it comes with a pepper? I have often wondered that as well. So, I did some digging and found out the reason why and how it all got started thanks to Trilllist.

The pepper is actually a pepperoncini pepper made from Turkey, the third largest producer of peppers (almost 2 million tons annually).

That still doesn't answer the question as to why Papa John's puts one inside their pizza box.

Well the story goes that the idea came from a restaurant where John Schnatter, A.K.A Papa John, used to work at. According to Thrillist:

"He was washing dishes at Rocky’s Sub Pub in Jeffersonville, Indiana. At Rocky’s, they always included a pepper with every pizza, it was just a nice extra touch that their customers really appreciated, and John noticed.”
When Schnatter decided to start selling pizza out of his father's pub after graduating from Ball St., he fine-tuned his business plan with the lessons learned during his summers of grunt-work. Serving pizzas with a pepper made the cut, obviously."

And that is the story behind the pepper from Papa Johns. How do you use it? Do you eat it or bite the tip off and spreads the juices on the pizza itself?


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