I’ve always been drawn to bright colors, especially red, so it is no wonder that I find chili peppers so fascinating. Chiltipin’s and chiltipine’s(wild peppers) are the mother of all chili peppers, about the size of a pea and hot, and are still found online or in Mexican grocery stores. Today’s chili’s originate from this wild pepper.

It is thought that the chili originated from South America and was brought to Europe by Columbus in his second voyage, and then spread east from there to Asia. Columbus called them peppers due to their similarities in heat and hotness to what we know as black pepper, which is not chili pepper at all. That’s a whole other topic.

There are 5 main varieties of chilies

1. Capsicum annum: These are the Bell pepper, Jalapeno & Cayenne and although it looks like they are annuals from the name, they can in fact be over-wintered to act like perennials.
2. Capsicum frutescens: These are small bushy plants and a very common one is the Tabasco pepper. The pods grow upright, like they are upside down.
3. Capsicum chinense: These are small round peppers are named after their country of origin, China, although it is thought by most, that they originated in South America as I stated before. The Habenero and Scotch Bonnet are typical varieties.
4. Capsicum pubescens: These have pear shaped fruits and purple flowers and are difficult to grow.
5. Capsicum baccatum: These are fast growing and have very small fruits.

Even though they are designated above they are still commonly broken down into 3 categories: bell peppers, sweet peppers, and hot peppers
So how is the hottest of the chili pepper determined? Well, there was this guy called William l. Scoville, who standardized the method to determine how hot they are. The higher the number, the hotter they are. It’s called the Scoville heat unit (SHU) Here is a rough guide to some of the more popular varieties:
Bell Peppers 0
Jalapeno 5,000
Cayennes 40,000
Tabasco 20,000 > 50,000
Habanero 100,000 > 300,000
Red Savina 350,000 > 575,000
Naga Morrich 900,000
Anti bear Pepper spray 2,000,000

Most people think that the seeds are what cause the heat but it is the membrane around the seeds.

Even though the chili is thought to come from S. America, its name has nothing to do with the country of Chile. Chile is named after the Quehua chin (cold), tchili (snow) orchili (where the land ends) according to the dictionary. Chili comes from the Aztec Nahuatl language for naming the fruit of the plant.

If you can grow tomatoes, you can probably grow all the varieties of chili’s, as they require at least 8 hours of sun a day. Try to buy the varieties that are geared towards your climate, as they are prone to mildew. Experiment, because there are many, many varieties of chili’s including ornamental chili's, which, by the way, are also edible.

So how do you stop the burning when you touch or eat a chili? Well, capsaicin, the active ingredient in a chili is fat or alcohol soluble, so drink milk or, why not, tequila? It helps ebb the pain much quicker than water.