You say you like 'em hot?

After we got back from the orchard Saturday, Andy was trying out some of the games we have on the X-Box while chatting with Brett, and Sharon and I head out to the garden...she needed some more peppers and boy do I have 'em!

After picking a good mix of sweet and hot peppers, mostly chili peppers, we decided to sample some of the new varieties I grew this year. Two (Aji Dulce #2 and Trinidad Perfume) are habanero-type peppers, but without the heat. We definitely tasted a hint of citrus in one of the two varieties, as it was advertised. And then I was surprised to find one of the fatalii peppers had ripened. I was really excited - I hadn't paid attention to just how many peppers the plant had grown (it was, literally, a late bloomer - probably because of the cold summer), and lo and behold, there it was - a ripe, bright yellow fatalii pepper. Now I warned Sharon it's supposed to be "as hot or hotter than a habanero" (according to the catalog from which I ordered it)....and then, following the same tasting we did with the other peppers, I dug into it with my thumbnail, split the pepper in two, and gave Sharon half. Were we ready to try it? You betchya!

And what happened?


And that's AFTER we got back in the house.

Here's what happened... We were standing there, we decided we were ready, we bit into the pepper wondering if we'd get that citrus kick, and instead the "oh wow, that's kinda hot" comments started. Followed by "oh man, that's getting worse" and "I think I'm ready to go get a glass of milk or something". We started walking towards the house, but within 10 ft that turned into a run. By the time we got to the house the tears and snot were flowing!


Here's the catalog description for fatalii:

"Fiery hot, wrinkled yellow peppers are related to habanero, and are at least as hot if not hotter. The searing heat has an excellent, citrus-like flavor that can be appreciated in the seconds before the heat sets in. Originally from Africa, these plants become 3 to 4 feet tall, maturing abundant crops of fruit earlier than plants of habanero. Peppers are 2 to 3 inches long with a wide top that tapers down to a point, and are shriveled all over. 80 days."


I don't care how much milk we drank, how much hand washing we did, white bread we ate, or even chocolate. NOTHING masked the burn. Sharon was icing her lips and tongue for most of the time, but I figure if anything that just numbed things up. I'm sorry, but my tongue and lips were turning numb ANYHOW - even without the ice.


I don't think Sharon reported any problems with her hands burning, but I had the burn under my thumbnail (where I broke the pepper open) til the next day!


Now even though we were experiencing A LOT of pain, there was also a lot of laughter - don't get me wrong. I think we were both surprised by just HOW hot the pepper was. AFTER THE FACT (doh) I did a little research and found that the fatalii pepper is considered the 5th or 6th hottest pepper in the world, and that it can have a Scoville rating of 100,000 to 350,000 scoville units. For what it's worth, jalapenos are in the range of 2,500 - 8,000 scoville units...so that's a big jump in heat, hunh?


I've asked Sharon if she'd be willing to recreate the whole experience, so we can get pics and video right from the beginning. She's, uh, "gracefully declined" from ever going through that again.


I'm honestly not sure that ANYTHING we did helped cut the heat - and I'm not a big fan of icing stuff (my extremities are VERY sensitive to cold). I was even feeling like little hiccups or nausea....something like muscle spasms in my upper stomach area? I don't know if all the laughter was contributing to it, but it was definitely part of my reaction to the heat.


What really sucked was the heat got into your mucus and saliva....so even when you thought you should be done with the burning, it was getting up into the nose, down the throat, coming back up into the mouth, etc. We didn't even EAT the pepper pieces - we spit them out as we ran to the house! I found a piece of the pepper on a pepper plant the next day, and VERY CAREFULLY knocked it off the plant so I wouldn't risk touching it.


Something to consider - now that I'm going to have all these fatalii peppers ripening, what am I going to do with them!?!? I've got a couple people at work who sound like they might be daring enough to try it...and I'm going to get Blake (Brett's brother) to try one when we see him in a couple weeks. The rest? I might try making a bug spray with them - puree them with water and spray them on plants in the garden. First I'll have to do a test spray somewhere small - make sure the pepper doesn't actually burn the leaves of other plants (this may not be something that ever happens - I don't know). I know you can make bug sprays with garlic and habaneros or other hot peppers - so why not these evil suckers!?

So - if you think you're daring and tough, I'd DEFINITELY recommend growing fatalii peppers in your garden next year. But I have to say - you've been warned! ;-)