The cult of hot chili peppers

The uninitiated should make no mistake, these chili pepper sauces are beyond the merely hot – they will mess you up!

There’s no doubt that the ‘chili challenge’ normally starts off by at least a few beers being downed by the participants. Usually someone will make a claim that he (and it’s almost a 100% male-only activity) owns the hottest sauce in the known universe. This will be closely followed by some boastful yet entertaining nonsense about how the sauce is illegal in 17 countries, only safe to purchase after passing the required health and safety course and owning the necessary safety equipment. Male bonding doesn’t require more than that to get started – and so a dangerous looking bottle of sauce is dug out of the back of a kitchen cupboard, dusted off, slammed down on the lounge table and the ancient and venerable game of ‘Hot sauce Russian Roulette’ commences.

Where do chili peppers come from?

Chili peppers are originally from North and South America. There is a history of them being part of the diets of various groups in the Americas since at least 7500 BC and perhaps earlier. The first that non-native Americans saw of these fiery peppers was when a physician, Diego Alvarez Chanca, brought them back to Spain upon returning with Columbus from his second journey in 1494. The continents of North and South America were still unknown at this point, Chanca’s chilis had come from one of the Caribbean islands.

Nobody in Europe had tasted anything as fiery as chilli peppers prior to the voyages to the Americas. It seems that the only other type of spices which were remotely ‘hot’ were horseradish and dried pepper corns – part of the standard salt-and-pepper combo which we still use today. Most of us have heard of the spice trade in history, however many don’t realise how important this business was in the past. Huge fortunes were made in the trade of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger and other spices. In 410 when the Goths held Rome ransom, Alaric, their leader demanded gold, jewels, silk and 30,000 pounds of peppercorns.

After chilli peppers were brought to Europe from the new world, the ocean-going powers took the plant with them when they traded and explored Asia. The largest producer of chilis in the world is currently India.

Looking for the hottest pepper on earth to awe your buddies with?