Peppers

I remember many years ago (1968), I came back from a trip to Japan and I brought a gift a Japanese friend gave to me. The gift was an innocent, small bag with a label reading “Piper Japonicum” (山椒 – sansho, sometimes called –wrong or not– Naga Jolokia). The bag did look more like a candy bag. It was a small cloth sack of multiple colors and a drawing of a “Kokeshi” doll offering the peppers in one hand, and holding a beautifully crafted hand-held-fan in the other hand covering her face, and probably a beautiful small lips smile. A rustic twine was keeping the bag closed. Of course in those days you could have brought home an elephant, and customs service wouldn’t have a problem with it. When I arrived to my house, I tossed the little bag (along with other “souvenirs” I brought) in my treasure chest in my room, and after awhile, I forgot about it.

Months later, while performing some cleaning of my room, I found the bag and I brought it to the kitchen with the intention to have a taste of those little rascals. That night when I sat down for dinner with my family, I pulled the bag and offered its contents to everyone. I did remind them that I was told that those peppers were extremely hot, and you have to go easy on the quantity when adding it to the food. We all had some in our soup. They were really, really hot, but flavorsome and they make the soup to taste real good.

A few minutes after we started eating, one of my nephews joined us for dinner, and as soon as he learned about the peppers, he started to presume how “macho” he was and started to tell a story about this “killer peppers” he had eaten bare, and nothing happened to him. He went on telling other tales about how much spice he can ingest in his food, and these peppers will not even pull tears from his eyes. There was no pepper in the planet that would top him. All of the sudden nobody could move in the room because my nephew’s arrogance had filled it completely.

Well, you know what’s coming. Yes, he needed to prove himself, and he poured nearly half of the bag content into his bowl of soup. After a few seconds, I could have sworn that his soup was shrieking! By that time, I have been sipping my soup for a jiffy now with a small spoon making sure I did not burn my mouth or tongue, and I was already feeling the intensity and hidden passion of those innocent -in a candy box- peppers.

Well, my dear nephew started to swallow the soup in a hurry because he was already late going to some party somewhere. After he had his peppery soup, he gobbled up some quick meat and some fast salad, and off he went. We finish dinner calmly, and we comment on the power of the peppers. Several minutes had past since we finish eating the soup spiced with the “Piper Japonicum”, and the burning sensation in my lips, mouth, esophagus, and stomach was confirming the tales about the peppers’ hot reputation. We also made a few comments on how my nephew can possibly eat such amount of those peppers, and do not feel it! We were all wrong, very wrong…

Minutes after my nephew left for the party with his friends, he was brought back by one of his friends. My arrogant nephew had a very bloated mouth, swollen lips, he had difficulty breathing, and his tears were showering from his red eyes. His lips looked like an air bag gone wrong! We all got up in a hurry and took him to the hospital.

To make the long story short, in the hospital the doctors “fixed” him. The only collateral damage was a colossal deflated ego, and an extreme difficulty in going to the bathroom for a couple of days. When we came back home from the hospital, the pepper bag was sitting silent on the table where we left it, looking innocent and harmless. I took the bag with the rest of the peppers in the candy-like bag, and I put it back in my treasure chest.


Some History

According to most biologists, chili peppers are native to the continents of South and Central America. It is believed that they were introduced to South Asia in or around the 15th century, and because of its success as food enhancers (and other uses); peppers conquered the planet’s spice trade. Cristoforo Colombo never imagined the wide impact this little fruit he brought to Spain, will have in the rest of Europe. The pepper spice is so pungent that did put to shame the reigning black pepper native to South Asia being consumed in Europe in those discovery days. Cristoforo Colombo called these fruits "peppers" because of their similarity in taste with the European peppers of the Piperaceae family.

There is indication of wide consumption of these plants in Central America, and substantial evidence of its utilization starting around 7500 BC. Chili peppers are perhaps the earliest plants to be domesticated. The origins of Capsicum Annum have been traced to Mexico and northern Central America, and the origins of Capsicum Frutescens to South America. These pepper species were first introduced to South Asia in or around the 1600s and now they rule as the two principal species in the region.

There is an interesting book written in 1597 in weird English, and published in London in 1633 about peppers. "The Herball, or Generall Historie of Plantes", written by John Gerard of England (1545-1612), is the first “scientific” study written on chili peppers of which Bryn Mawr published the first edition in 1597, and then, he published an enlarged, fully illustrated second edition in 1633. Some botanists and archeologists believe that chili peppers have been an important part of the human eating habits in the Americas since before 7500 BC. Ancient evidence at sites located in southwestern Ecuador point to fact that chili peppers were already a domestic plant more than 8000 years ago, making peppers one of the first self-pollinating cultivated crops in the Americas.


The Voyages of Chili Pepper

Chili peppers started to be cultivated broadly and actively around the globe, courtesy of Colombo’s physician, Don Diego Álvarez Chanca, who gave a long ride to peppers in the second voyage to the West Indies in 1493. As historians reveal, Don Diego Álvarez Chanca, driven by the wish of become rich (the first reason to jump in this crazy adventure with Colombo), introduced the first chili peppers to Spain, only a year after the discovery of the new continent in 1492. In 1494, Don Diego Álvarez Chanca recorded the first written testimony about the medicinal properties of peppers.

The Spaniards, with commercial ports in their newly conquered colony in the Terra Nova -today Mexico- controlled most of the maritime trade interchange with Asia. With the help of European vessels that docked in the new world, Spaniards started exporting the precious chili peppers -now turned a commodity- seemingly without limitations; besides storms, pirates and lost ships to the ocean’s grandiosity, to the Philippines, and afterwards to India, China, Korea, Japan, and of course, the rest of Europe. The exotic spice was quickly adopted by the people and absorbed into their local gastronomy.

Then, since the peppers become a sensation and they also were a high ticket item, the Portuguese sailors took the cherished new pepper from Spain and transported it to India -a Portuguese colony at the time- for its sale (today India is the largest producer of chilies in the world). Soon after, the pepper made its way from India, to Central Asia, and reportedly to Hungary and Turkey on horse, donkey, and camel backs, courtesy of the entrepreneurial spirit of the Portuguese conquistadores. The pepper demonstrated a remarkable resistance to lingering voyages, defiance to weather erosion, and changing climate.

There are many chili species, in all sizes and colors; there are sweet peppers, spicy peppers, and killer peppers. Some peppers are used as ornaments, others as food supply, and others as weapons. The Black Habanero (AKA: Chocolate Habanero), is believed to be the direct descendant of the native peppers that once grew in one of the world's longest coastal plains which is located in western South America. This pepper is hardly available due to its long maturity time which makes it very scarce. Guitar makers introduce one of this huge Black Habaneros inside wooden guitars because they say that it helps to absorb the guitar’s humidity, and makes the guitar to produce a more “sweet” and “soft” sound. Olé!

Whatever the case, everyone who has come in contact with peppers at one time or another has something to say about this peculiar fruit. Even though chilis may enjoy a denomination as a vegetable and also conceived as a fruit, its culinary relevance is mostly as a spice. Now, botany and its botanical troopers and cohorts armed with powerful microscopes, scary Petri dishes, threatening scissors, snatching tweezers, and cyclopic magnifying glasses, consider this eccentric plant a berry shrub! But who cares? Really! We just like to eat peppers!


Montezuma’s Revenge

Have you heard before of Chile Habanero, or the people screaming after eating them? Well, there are conflicting and obscure accounts on the subject of the origin of Moctezuma’s Revenge because of this chili pepper. According to my own digging and discoveries in the annals of ancient Aztec popular folklore, Moctezuma used to torture his victims –usually a warrior in disgrace– before sacrificing them by making the unfortunate devils eat a thick gumbo of chile habanero mixed with “scraped dust of the big claw of Camaxtli” –the god of hunting, war, fate, and fire.

After eating the potion forced upon him, the ill-fated victim plummet into violent convulsions, terrible vomiting, and explosive diarrhea, as the implausible and far-fetched anecdote tells. After a few hours through this ordeal, the unenthusiastic victim was ready for the sacrifice, and unable to oppose any resistance.

Of course these folk stories have no historic and/or scientific basis; however, they have been narrated as “factual” by old members of the Tlahuica culture, one of the earliest ethnic groups members of the Aztec culture who inhabited regions near to today’s State of Morelos, or so I was told…

In any case, the Great Moctezuma and the despicable diarrhea are forever fused together in the expression “Moctezuma’s Revenge”, in modern times known as “Traveler’s diarrhea”. To those who have traveled abroad and have experienced the fueling effects of this ancient spell, there is no more explanation to do. Truth or not, feel free to find out for yourself.

Now back to the peppers. The spice popularly called chile habanero does not have its origin in Chile, but in the Yucatán peninsula and its coastal regions. Chile Habanero is also called Capsicum Chinense Jacquin, a close cousin of my nephew’s “Piper Japonicum”. This chile is one of the most powerfully spicy chili peppers ever of the entire Capsicum genus. Before they mature, this habaneros are bright green, and at its maturity its color can fluctuate a lot! The most common colors are bright orange and vivid red, however, clear white, dazzling pink, and shades of intense brown also conform to their aquarelle of fiery colors. Most habaneros will rate between 200,000 and 300,000 in the Scoville scale, but the Chile Habanero is at the top of this group with a rating close to 350,000.


The Scoville Scale

The Scoville scale is a measure of the hotness or piquancy of a chili pepper.

Scoville rating Type of pepper
15,000,000–16,000,000 Pure capsaicin
9,100,000 Nordihydrocapsaicin

2,000,000–5,300,000 Standard US Grade pepper spray

855,000–1,041,427 Naga Jolokia

350,000–577,000 Red Savina Habanero

100,000–350,000 Chile Habanero

100,000–350,000 Scotch Bonnet

100,000–200,000 Jamaican Hot Pepper
50,000–100,000 Thai Pepper, Malagueta Pepper, Chiltepin Pepper

30,000–50,000 Cayenne Pepper, Ají pepper, Tabasco pepper

10,000–23,000 Serrano Pepper

7,000–8,000 Tabasco Sauce (Habanero)

5,000–10,000 Wax Pepper
2,500–8,000 Jalapeño Pepper

2,500–5,000 Tabasco Sauce (Tabasco pepper)

1,500–2,500 Rocotillo Pepper
1,000–1,500 Poblano Pepper

600–800 Tabasco Sauce (Green Pepper)

500–1000 Anaheim pepper

100–500 Pimento, Pepperoncini

0 No heat, Bell pepper


And NOT; pepper-oni does not belong in the scale!

Chile peppers have nothing to do whatsoever with black pepper (Piper Nigrum) which is originary from tropical Asia. The expression ‘pepper’ this spicy has been nickname with, is confusing and this misunderstanding has been mistakenly embedded in the common cultures of peoples for more than 500 years, and there is no chance to change that!

This uncharacteristic, wonderful, and ancient fruit ought to be called chile. The Aztecs called them that! This fruits were born in the heart of the Aztec’s terra firma! Since primordial times, chiles have been fundamental elements in the lives of the aboriginal populace who used them as food and medicine. Tons of these peppers were found in the Aztecan Valley of Tehuacán, were the city of Tehuacán was erected sometime before 8,500 BC –today Puebla, Mexico– but considered as “city” in 8,500 BC. The found peppers in the Aztec territory were dated as being more than 9,000 years old, so for goodness sake call them chiles like the Aztecs did in ancient times! Just so you know, among the ruins of the deep-rooted city of Tehuacán was also found the oldest archeological fossil of corn.

Next time you are about to eat any “pepper” in any way, or in any form, please before you devour this magnificent plant, look at it for a few, emotional moments, and nostalgically bring to mind the 9,000 years-long journey the amazing pepper endured to be at your munificent table.

“The Aztecs feared their Gods, their Gods feared Chile Habanero” – unknown author.