Mike and Patty Hultquist like their food scary hot with names to match. They gravitate toward Reaper, Scorpion and Ghost. When it comes to these superhot peppers, the hotter the better.
"We're like most chili heads," Mike Hultquist confessed. "We have our own little bottles of pepper blends. When we go out to eat, we sprinkle a little on our food, just to give it that extra heat. It's like carrying Tabasco, except our blends are made of superhots."
Virtually unknown a decade ago, superhots are the hottest of hot peppers, topping 1 million on the Scoville Heat Unit (SHU) scale. By comparison, a jalapeno pepper scores a mere 5,000.
The Illinois husband-and-wife team's craving for more heat fuels their popular blog and website, Chili Pepper Madness, where they share ways to enjoy _ and survive _ all sorts of hot peppers.
They're not alone. Americans have developed a deep, heated passion for really hot peppers. That's led to an abundance of pepper varieties in markets and on menus as pepper lovers try to feed their need for intense, eye-watering, mouth-scorching heat.
"There are researchers and home gardeners (developing hotter peppers) on a daily basis," said Danise Coon, senior research specialist for the New Mexico State University Chile Breeding Program and the Chile Pepper Institute. "The trend to get even hotter keeps growing exponentially."
September is peak pepper season with the fresh crop featuring a wide assortment of sizes, appearances, flavors and heat levels. California now surpasses New Mexico, known to some as "the Chile State," in hot pepper production with more than 3.1 million pounds, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, although New Mexico still has more acres devoted to its signature crop.
"The most popular varieties of hot peppers are jalapenos and cayennes," Coon said. "Cayennes make up the bulk of hot sauces."
New Mexico prides itself on Hatch peppers, grown in Hatch Valley and coveted by cooks. These long mild peppers ( only 1,000 SHU) look like their California cousin, Anaheim peppers, a favorite for stuffing and cooking.
While some pepper lovers may debate spelling, New Mexico sticks with "chile." (The Bee's style is "chili pepper.")
"Horticulturally, it is spelled 'chile,'" Coon explained. "A lot of people say it can't be because Chile is a country, while chili is actually the culinary dish consisting of beans, meat, onions and chile powder."
Interest in global cuisine has helped fuel pepper love. About one-third of people worldwide eat hot peppers every day, according to university research. And it's about more than wanting to feel the burn. Hot peppers contain a natural anti-microbial that can preserve foods without refrigeration, an important quality in tropical climates.
Peppers get their heat from an alkaloid, capsaicin, which is concentrated in the filaments that anchor seeds inside the pepper. Our tongues react to this compound the same way it reacts to fire, but without real damage, say scientists. (That's why we think peppers are "hot.") It's also believed to trigger the release of endorphins that give our brains an addictive rush.
Our taste buds gradually build up tolerance, so more heat is required to get the same reaction.
At zero on the Scoville scale, sweet bell peppers are the mildest. Poblano, another mild stuffing pepper, rates 1,000. The king of the superhots, the current world's hottest pepper is the Carolina Reaper, which hits 2.2 million SHU. Trinidad Scorpion tops 1.4 million. Bhut jolokia, the "ghost pepper," also tops 1 million � 400 times hotter than Tabasco.
Scotch bonnet, popular in Caribbean cooking, and habanero, a Mexican mainstay, seem tame at 250,000. Cayenne rates about 40,000. Serrano, another popular Mexican pepper, is "only" 10,000 to 20,000, depending on ripeness and growing conditions. Sriracha hot sauce uses ripe red jalapenos, a little hotter and sweeter than immature green ones.
The Hultquists make their own Sriracha-style sauce, spiked with superhots. "Always open the windows when working with peppers," Mike Hultquist said. "Turn on the fan."
His advice to newbie pepper lovers? "Don't kill yourself right away. Start with low-heat peppers, but definitely explore. All peppers have something to offer. Once you get past the heat, you discover peppers can be sweet or smoky. You can follow pepper types into different cuisines. Peppers open your palate to flavors around the world."
