Chilli FAQ’s
Why are Chillies hot?
Survival of the fittest! Most animals in the wild find Chillies unbearable, however, capsaicin has no effect on birds who distribute seeds.
Most modern Superhot Chillies are engineered and the hottest 'natural chilli' is the Bhut Jolokia chilli from India measuring at over 1'000,000 SHU.
Why do Chillies hurt?
The simple answer is: they don't! All of the physical symptoms of eating Chillies are psychosomatic!! Being the only fruit species in the world that does this it's hard to 'get your head around' but..... All of the physical reactions (nose streaming, eyes watering, hiccups, nausea, head-spinning) are a chemical brain response to capsaicin. Inflammation around the mouth and nose is simply a widening of blood vessels, again, trying to flush out the capsaicin than the brain perceives as a threat. Capsaicinoids are the several chemicals in Chillies that cause irritation to pain receptors in the brain and the hotter the chilli the stronger the reaction.
Is Chilli addictive?
Many believe it is highly addictive as any 'Chilli Head' will attest to. The reason is that the natural reaction to hot Chillies also triggers a huge release in Endorphins, causing euphoria.
Explaining SHU
In 1912 American chemist, Wilbur Scolville developed a test to measure heat in Chillies. He asked of human subjects to sip increasingly concentrated solutions of chilli diluted in sugar syrup until heat could be detected. The more the chilli had to be diluted, the more intense the heat and subsequently, the higher the Scolville rating (Scolville Heat Units - SHU).
EG: if heat was detected once a chilli was diluted 100,000 times it was acknowledged to have a Scolville rating of 100,000 SHU.
In modern times Chilli heat is measured with a process called 'high-pressure liquid chromatography'.
For the benefit of this site, relishes are categorised into the following categories:
'very mild' (less than 1,000 SHU)
'warm' (1,000 - 5,000 SHU)
'hot' (5,000 - 500,000 SHU)
'very hot' (500,000 - 1'000,000 SHU)
'Super Hot' (1'000,000 - 2'000,000 SHU)
'Violently Hot' (2'000,000 plus)
Please, when reading product descriptions, have the above in mind.
