Recently I’ve been making a fair bit of hot sauces and experimenting with different chillies. I’ve found that I’m able to handle (with some discomfort) a fresh habanero, but a fresh bird’s eye will floor me. Speaking with other’s who like spice, they have said thing like “I can eat Asian chillies, but can’t handle South American chillies”
Is there an actual difference in the chillies that causes a chilli lower on the Scoville scale to feel spicier? Or is is just anecdotal?
In: Biology
While the overall question is pretty purely individual/anecdotal, there is one element that IS worth mentioning: East Asian “chile peppers” vs South American chile peppers.
Some things from East Asia are *not* actually peppers, meaning, they don’t come from the genus capsicum. Sichuan peppercorns, for example, come from a tree in the citrus family, the thorny ash. Actual capsicum is native only to the Americas, though it has been cultivated worldwide since the Columbian exchange. Since they’re from a different genus, their “spicy” molecules are different, and thus a person could easily have a different response for that reason alone, completely unrelated to the individual/anecdotal element.
Latest Answers