The Spice of Life

Capsaicin. That’s it. That’s literally the spice of life. Capsaicin is the chemical naturally produced by peppers that makes them (or anything for that matter) taste spicy. It is an irritant created by the pepper plant to deter animals from eating it. I guess that plan didn’t work out too well for them…

Now, to understand peppers we first have to talk about the Scoville Heat Scale. Yes, it is actually a scale to describe about how spicy a pepper is. Let’s face it, we really all just want to know how spicy a pepper can get right? The Scoville Scale can range from 0 – the average bell pepper, all the way up to 16 billion (as far as we know)!

So how hot can you go? Bell peppers are at the bottom of the spectrum. They score a whopping 0 on the Scoville scale. Sticking with the peppers we grow here at Piedmont Produce, Banana peppers come in second at 100-1000. The most common hot pepper, the jalapeno, comes in between 3,500 and 10,000 heat units. The red jalapenos usually score on the higher end of that range. Finally, the hottest pepper we grow is the mighty habanero which scores between 100,000-350,000! Now that’s a hot pepper! Habaneros were actually listed in the Guinness World Records as being the hottest pepper in the world back in 1999. Since then some things have changed…

The current record holder for the world’s hottest pepper was actually bred right here in the Carolinas! In Fort Mill, SC to be exact. It is called the Carolina Reaper and it actually looks as terrifying as it sounds.

This monster pepper broke the record by scoring an impressive, yet horrifying, 1,569,300 on the Scoville Scale. The hottest individual Carolina Reaper that was found hit a remarkable 2.2 million heat units! That makes it almost 450 times hotter than a jalapeno! Not really something I’d be interested in putting on my pizza… Or anywhere near me for that matter.

I did say that the Scoville scale goes up to 16 billion units. The “hottest” substance known to us is Resiniferatoxin which is a super concentrated version of capsaicin. It can only be extracted from a special cactus in a lab so you don’t have to worry about coming across it at the grocery store or running into it in your garden. Not really relevant to what goes on here at Piedmont Produce but fun to know anyways!

Fun fact: Humans are the only species on Earth that enjoy eating spicy foods. That means that hot peppers can actually be used as a natural pest deterrent in your garden! There are several recipes online on how to make your own garden sprays. Bugs and animals take one taste of the capsaicin and they’re gone!

Our peppers are doing really well right now. They love this hot weather! We actually have several varieties of peppers, both hot and sweet, growing in our greenhouse right now. They are one of the only plants that can survive the constant 100+ degree temperatures that would kill most anything else. Peppers are tough and easy to grow. Definitely a favorite of mine in the garden. Plus they taste and look wonderful!

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