peppers

Chris Knight's avatar

Dear Readers,

Last night, while at a restaurant with a friend, I did something that I have wanted to do for years but thought would never happen, particularly after I vowed not to do it.

But I figured, “what the heck?”

Yesterday evening, at long last, I ate Bhut jolokia: the notorious “ghost pepper” from India.  Until recently, certified as the hottest pepper on the face of the Earth.

(Yes, there are photographs of this happening.  My friend took them with his iPhone but I don’t have them yet.  Suffice it to say they are rather… interesting.)

So, what did I think?  Bhut jolokia is extremely hot.  However it is not as hot as I had long anticipated.  All along I’ve had visions of my bare tongue pressed against the inner circles of Dante’s Inferno.  What I experience instead was a fiery hot pepper that made my face burn ...

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I tried growing some Bhut Jolokia several months ago, but it never sprouted the peppers. I wound up giving up. At the time it was the world’s hottest chili pepper, clocking in at more than a million scorching Scovilles.

Okay, scratch that… ‘cuz there’s now a new heavyweight champion of the hot pepper scene!

Behold the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion: some peppers of which have been found to be TWO MILLION Scoville Heat Units!

(I am already determined to find some of this stuff. No I’m not suicidal…)

New Mexico State University’s Chile Pepper Institute performed quantitative analysis of a variety of superhot peppers from around the globe. How powerful is the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion?

During harvesting, senior research specialist Danise Coon said she and the two students who were picking the peppers went through about four pairs of latex gloves.

“The capsaicin kept penetrating the latex and soaking into

...
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Awright, I’ve been putting this off for too long now. I knew that this day would come. Not gonna run and hide anymore. Here, live or die, I will make my stand.

This afternoon I began the process of growing my can of Bhut jolokia.

And as I said when I first wrote about coming into possession of this stuff back in February, “This is either one of the bravest things that I will have ever attempted… or it is the stoopidest of my entire life…”

The Bhut jolokia: regarded by the scientific community as THE world’s hottest naturally-occurring pepper. Native to north-eastern India, in the local tongue “Bhut jolokia” translates into “ghost pepper”. Because as the natives like to joke, one bite of this could send you to an early grave.

Spicy heat is measured in Scoville units. Regular Tabasco sauce has a “hotness” of 2,500 Scoville ...

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This is either one of the bravest things that I will have ever attempted… or it is the stoopidest of my entire life (which could be snuffed out by this stuff).

Back in December I posted about my filmmaking partner “Weird” Ed Woody passing along the link where you can purchase Bhut jolokia for your very own! Why did Ed tell me about ThinkGeek’s Grow Your Own World’s Hottest DIY Pepper kit? Because he’s all too aware of my hideous interest in super-spicy hot food. Here’s the link if you want to buy some too: whether to consume or just to display on your desk as a potent symbol of power.

Well, as you can see in the photo on the left, I am now in possession of a can of Bhut jolokia seeds, along with the soil (presumably from north-eastern India where the pepper originates) to grow it ...

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“Weird Ed” Woody, my filmmaking partner, is quietly attempting to murder me.

That’s the only reason why I can conceive of his sending me this link to ThinkGeek’s product page for the Grow Your Own World’s Hottest DIY Pepper kit… because Weird Ed is well aware of my fascination with spicy hot food and he knows that I’m not going to pass up on the chance to grow my own Bhut jolokia!

This pepper, native to northeastern India, was written about more than three years ago on this blog and at the time some enterprising folks were looking at how to market it to the wider world. Well for a few bucks and some scratch you can get this pop-top can, open it up and give it water and sunlight, and in a few weeks you’ll get your first sprouts. The pepper comes in at more than a million scorching ...

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The bhut jolokia – or “ghost pepper” because one bite of this could send you to an early grave – of northeastern India is now officially the world’s hottest chili pepper

A chile’s spiciness can be scientifically measured by calculating its content of capsaicin, the chemical that gives a pepper its bite, and counting its Scoville units.

And how hot is the bhut jolokia?

As a way of comparison: Classic Tabasco sauce ranges from 2,500 to 5,000 Scoville units. Your basic jalapeño pepper measures anywhere from 2,500 to 8,000. The previous record holder, the Red Savina habanero, was tested at up to 580,000 Scovilles.

The bhut jolokia crushed those contenders, testing at 1,001,304 Scoville units.

Over a million Scoville units?! Geeeeeez…

For a month now I’ve been trying Dave’s Ultimate Insanity sauce on quite a few things, including mixing it with chili and salsa. It’s so powerful that the most ...

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A few days ago I wrote about how last week I finally came into possession of a bottle of Dave’s Ultimate Insanity Sauce: reputedly one of the most fiery hot sauces on the market… if not the most fiery. It’s been sitting in our kitchen this whole time with the seal still unbroken on the bottle.

Well, this afternoon Lisa did some grocery shopping and she bought some Pace Chunky Salsa (medium flavor). Since you’re only supposed to use Dave’s Insanity sauces in well-diluted portions of whatever you are planning to eat, I decided this would be a good a time as any to try the sauce. I got a plate, poured out a helping of Pace salsa, and then finally opened the Dave’s Ultimate Insanity up and poured one tiny drop of the stuff onto the salsa. I mixed it all up really well with a spoon. Then ...

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In Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, the now-classic account by John Berendt of his time in Savannah, Georgia, there is a character named Luther Driggers. Luther – real person but his name in the book is a pseudonym – was a scientist who invented the flea collar. In the book Berendt accompanies him as Luther tries to market glow-in-the-dark goldfish (the scheme bombs bigtime). But his real claim to notoriety is that he possesses a bottle of poison so deadly, that it would kill every man, woman and child living in Savannah. He never intends to actually use the stuff. But Luther enjoys the sense of power that comes with owning so potent a thing, knowing that his fellow citizens are terrified out of their wits that Luther will pour it into the water system some night when he’s depressed or drunk or something.

Well, it’s ...

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Well, I just ate one.

DAY-UMMMNNN are those things hot!!

If you ever wondered what they tasted like, and had the temptation to try one, brace yourself: they will make your taste buds blister.

I kinda liked it though. Maybe next time I’ll ask them to pack a few more of them in along with the pizza.

The hottest pepper on Earth is said to be the Bhut Jolokia, which I’ve heard is so hot that it’ll burn bare human skin on contact. Most companies that sell it have you sign a waiver stating that you understand the danger that comes with handling such a thing.

So of course, I’m hoping to try it for myself someday 🙂...

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