Re: [CH] India now claims to have world's hottest chile
Porter Banister (porter9@concentric.net)
Tue, 5 Sep 2000 15:05:44 -0400
carlos m navarro wrote:
> Defense Research Laboratory in the garrison town of Tezpur, said the
> Naga Jolokia chile pepper grown in northeast India is hotter than
> the previous record-holder, the Red Savina Habanero.
>
> Das said the Naga Jolokia measured 855 Scoville units, compared to 577
> for the Habanero in the tests, completed last week.
I hope some of the Red Savina growers and experts on this list will correct
me if I am wrong, but wasn't the famous 577,000 Scovilles reading taken from
a Red Savina some years back an extreme example of what just one or a few
particular chiles from a particular crop gave? Isn't the more typical Red
Savina one eats today more likely to be in the 300,000 to 400,000 Scovilles
range? If so, then isn't it entirely possible that one particular Tezpur
pepper produced an 855,000 Scoville units measurement? Other samplings of
Tezpur peppers may be well below that of the particular example tested, and
may in fact be in the cayenne range of heat. What I am really asking is,
couldn't a fluke occur with one or two peppers that makes their heat
significantly higher than the usual levels found in that particular species?
In my fridge now, for example, I have ordinary green Jalapenos recently
picked from a friend's garden, and they are extremely hot. I wouldn't want
to guess how many Scovilles, because perceived heat on one's mouth and
tongue may not accurately reflect Scovilles, but these Jals are very close
to the top of my heat tolerance. As hot as your hotter Thai Birds, I'd say.
In my fridge I also have a jar of pickled Red Savinas sold under the Don
Enrique brand name. These have perhaps half the perceived heat of my Jals.
Granted pickling often reduces the heat significantly, but even if it
reduced it by half (doubtful) then the mighty Red Savina would still only be
the equal of, and not the superior to, the heat levels found in my 'mere'
Jalapenos that I am lucky enough to have gotten. The pickled Savinas are, in
spite of their relative weakness, delicious, by the way. I am going to
pickle some of my own in a couple of weeks when I pluck them from my
friend's garden. If these are anything like last year's, then I will be
happy. I am hoping for less heat loss than what I found in the Don Enrique
product.
Porter