subject: The Ultimate High -- Discovering the World's Hottest Peppers [print this page] To a true chilihead it often comes as a shock to realize that most people they meet have never had anything hotter than a nacho jalapeno slice in their mouth.
Why? Because as hot as that jalapeno may seem to you, there is actually more heat levels above it than below it.
What are Chiliheads?
Chilihead is what people who love hot peppers and hot foods in general typically call themselves. Naturally this comes from the chili pepper -- a good source of tongue burning heat.
Don't be confused with chile -- the beef and bean stew that cowboys love. Most chiliheads probably love chile -- but they are really two very different things.
Chili peppers are the most common source of heat in foods -- thus the name chilihead. But mustard, ginger, horseradish and several other foods can also deliver delicious eye-watering heat.
Hot Peppers
Now about that jalapeno.
The heat of peppers comes from a chemical called capsaicin. The more capsaicin in a pepper, the hotter it feels on the tongue. The heat is measured by using the Scoville scale and the amount given is in Scoville Units. It's a bit more complicated to explain than can be done in this short article, but basically -- the more Scoville Units the hotter the pepper.
Your normal ballpark nacho jalapeno slice will typically rate about 1,000 Scoville Units. A fresh, unpickled jalapeno about 5,000.
If you gasp for breath, break out in a sweat and have to blow your nose after eating these -- you may want to stop reading now.
A Thai chili -- used in many traditional Chinese and Southeast Asian dishes -- weighs in at around 75,000 Scoville Units. Or about 15 to 75 times as hot as that jalapeno. Don't expect to get too many in your basic cheap Chinese takeout. They know their market and usually use less hot varieties. But if you get some highend or authentic Oriental food you may encounter them. You'll know it if you do.
On the extreme upper end of the scale is the habanero pepper. Sometimes called the Scotch bonnet, this pepper rates as high as a head exploding 500,000 Scoville Units.
Reaching Even Higher
Remarkably, even though the Red Savino habanero is the hottest pepper on the planet, it pales in comparison to some of the hot sauces on the market. By extracting and concentrating capsaicin, hot sauce makers have achieved the unthinkable heat levels of 3,000,000 plus Scoville Units.
It has been said that these sauces are to your jalapeno slice what the atom bomb is to the beat of a butterflys wings.
And this is the realm of the true chilihead who puts this stuff on hamburgers, sandwiches, chicken wings -- and in chile.
Heaven help us.
The Ultimate High -- Discovering the World's Hottest Peppers
