Chili Pepper News — hot peppers

Sure hot peppers and hot pepper products taste great at mealtime, but the name says it all! Not only are they oftentimes burning hot when they reach your mouth, but some are so hot you’ll start feeling it starting with the tips of your fingers. That’s why some of the hottest products on the market are literally too hot to handle.

If you just can’t seem to decide what to get the person on your holiday shopping list that seems to have everything, maybe you haven’t looked far enough. Sure you probably have hot sauce and hot pepper lovers on your list, but there’s no room for ordinary this year. That’s why we’ll bet some of the newest holiday gifts to hit the market are sure to fit the bill.

If you’ve ever wondered what exactly it is that makes hot peppers so hot, look no further than capsaicin. It’s the active component in hot peppers that brings on the intense heat. For people or mammals for that matter, it’s the capsaicin that’s responsible for the burning sensation. First coined in the 1800s, capsaicin is colorless, yet highly pungent.

It may not be the hottest pepper in the world anymore, but you certainly don’t want to underestimate the habanero! This very hot pepper still packs quite a punch. Ranked the world’s hottest pepper by Guinness in the late 1990s, the habanero has been surpassed by a number of super-hot peppers over the years. Even so, it’s at least 70 times hotter than the average jalapeno, with some measuring even hotter than that.