About Chilies

Hot chilies have arrived! They are now a staple ingredient in everything from ready meals to cocktails. Try a chili-flavored chocolate. Apparently, globalization is the reason. It has raised the world’s tolerance to capsaicin.

Capsaicin, the substance found in chili peppers, causes a physical response when ingested: it releases endorphins into the bloodstream; and, endorphins bring pain relief. The more one ingests, the higher one flies pain free, and it does no lasting damage. But one can expect to perspire profusely and to feel their pulse quicken. For some, tears may flow.

Recipes in the past used to call for a pinch of cayenne pepper; however, today, standard-strength Tabasco sauce may be too mild for the heat-seekers who claim “Hotter is better”. Even the latest Tabasco product an extra-hot version based on habeÒero peppers doesn’t satisfy them.

On the Scoville scale (based on dilution in sugar syrup to the point that the capsaicin becomes no longer noticeable to the taster) the hottest habaÒero chilies score 577,000. Well, the heat-seekers scoff at that score and prefer to ingest peppers with vapors that will make one’s nose tingle.

The Bhut Jolokia grown by the Chile Pepper Institute in New Mexico State University scored just over 1 million on the scale, displacing a chili grown by the Indian Defense Research Laboratory in Tezpur which scored 855,000.

But now there is an astronomically hot pepper available at Tesco, Britain’s biggest supermarket chain. It is the Dorset naga, so hot that the market will not sell it to children. On the Scoville scale it scores 1.6 million. Cooks are advised to wear gloves. That is close to the 2 million score of pepper spray used in riot control.

Surprisingly, the Dorset naga has been a huge success for Tesco. Demand for hot chilies across all British retailers rose by 18% in 2008. At Tesco, the growth has been 29%. Demand for the naga has been so great that the markets are selling unripe green ones.

It is not currently available in North America.