[CH] India now claims to have world's hottest chile
carlos m navarro (navarroc@unm.edu)
Tue, 5 Sep 2000 11:37:32 -0600 (MDT)
According to an AP story dated Sept. 5, India claims to have the world's
hottest chile. S.C. Das, deputy director of the
Defense Research Laboratory in the garrison town of Tezpur, said the
Naga Jolokia chile pepper grown in northeast India is hotter than
the previous record-holder, the Red Savina Habanero.
Das said the Naga Jolokia measured 855 Scoville units, compared to 577
for the Habanero in the tests, completed last week.
The Naga Jolokia, which grows to about 2 inches long and to a thickness of
about half an inch in the hilly terrain of Assam, has been a staple of the
diet of locals for centuries, said AP.
Das said that the researchers at the lab 110 miles north of Assam's
capital, Gauhati, had measured the pungency of the two chilis in Scoville
units - the international gauge for food spiciness.
Carlos
Albuquerque