In the States, it’s completely obvious that chili peppers are growing in popularity.
They’re everywhere in one form or another. They’re in spicy sandwiches and cropping up as sauce offerings on the side. Hotter wings are on the menu. Even Wendy’s is offering hot as hell fries. Like we said – obvious.
We’re not the only country adopting the hot food trend. Across the Atlantic, British restaurants are picking up on the trend. They’re even making it easier to indulge at home.
While Americans tend to pick up their super hot chilies at specialty food stores and through online retailers, British shoppers can head to one of the country’s largest grocery chains. Tesco’s stocks super hot chili varieties in addition to all the stuff you would expect to find at an English grocery store.
Recently, Tesco’s started carrying a Komodo Dragon chili pepper that’s pretty damn hot; it carries about 1.4 to 1.5 million Scoville. So, it’s not as hot as a Reaper, but it’s a big step up from Scotch Bonnet peppers which have been a favorite on that side of the ocean for a long time.
According to the folks over at Tesco’s the Komodo Dragon sells rather well. Sure, it’s not in everyone’s baskets at checkout, but there are shoppers that don’t mind experimenting with super hot peppers.
Introducing the Reaper
Considering the success of the Komodo Dragon pepper, Tesco’s decided to go all out. Now, they’re selling Reaper Peppers.
Of course, there are warnings on the peppers which are individually packaged so they can’t accidentally be put into the mouths of babes in the produce section of the store. The warnings are a little vague, mind you. Don’t touch them without gloves and don’t let them get anywhere near your eyes and so on and so forth. (Incidentally, the idea of suing people for incomplete warnings is an American idea. The British system relies more on exercising common sense.)
Still, there has been an outcry from members of the public regarding the launch of Reapers on the shelves at Tesco’s. They’re worried about people vomiting or having heart attacks as reactions to these ultra-hot chili peppers.
It’s not impossible. However, a spokesperson for Tesco believes that people aren’t buying these peppers to play pranks or recreate food eating challenges at home; they’re doing it to add some kick to their meals. And, it doesn’t look like the company has any plans to pull their super spicy peppers from the shelves.
They may just need to take a better look at the warnings attached to each of their peppers. Still, if you can get a Komodo Dragon pepper, we can’t understand why anyone would feel the need to cap it there.
