EXPLORING NATURE: TOO HOT

First off, let me make you a red-hot offer. I have a big bush just off my back bedroom deck and it is covered in tiny, BB-sized red and orange peppers. Chili pequins.

It only takes one to light a fire in your mouth; they are truly hot. My offer is to send you a batch absolutely free if you will send me a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Just send the envelope to me at 750 Cypress Creek Lane in Wimberley. I’ll get your peppers in the mail the same day I receive the envelope. This offer expires Nov. 20 or when my peppers run out, whichever comes first.

I like hot peppers, but I have to admit I am a weenie when it comes to the really hot ones. For example, on a trip to Trinidad, I bought a bottle of pickled Scorpion peppers. Back home, I cautiously nibbled one and almost went into orbit with pain. I learned to use a tiny bit of pepper mixed with my food and even then it was one ultra-hot experience.

On the other hand, I purchased a bottle of “Zulu Fire Sauce” in anticipation of something at least hotter than Tabasco, but found it quite mild. So you just never know.

I am told the world’s hottest peppers, in descending order, are Carolina Reaper, Trinidad Moruga Scorpion, 7 Pot Douglah, 7 Pot Primio, Trinidad Scorpion (Butch T), Naga Viper, Ghost Pepper, 7 Pot Barrackpore, 7 Pot Red Giant, and Red Savina Habanero. The “7 Pot” designation means one pepper can heat up to seven pots of stew.

The hottest of the hot, the Carolina Reaper, is some 200 times hotter than a jalapeno pepper. Wow.

I am told the Carolina Reaper “has an excellent fruity flavor – right up until it melts your face off.”

So I guess I’ll stick with my little chili pequins.