When will Super Hots go Mainstream?

[Avon Barksdale]

In the USA hot spicy foods are now mainstream. 40 years ago there were very few Mexican restaurants outside the southwest. Then came the success of the chain Chi-Chi's, where many of us first tasted jalapenos on nachos, and margaritas.

Ah...Chi-Chis...a Mexican restaurant whose name means tits in Spanish. I bet the Mexicans living here laughed every time they drove by one, the same way I laugh every time I pass an accounting firm here named "Sackrider and Company". That was my favorite restaurant when I was little, before I knew what real Mexican food was. I used to go there for my birthday every time. A division of Chi-Chis is still in business here named Tumbleweed. I don't think they're all over the US but there's one about 10 miles away from me. The food is really bland Americanized and watered down Mexican food. Their steaks are ok but their Mexican/Tex Mex food is pretty awful, and yet still more expensive than real Mexican restaurants. Go figure...

 

[smokemaster]

I guess you haven't seen in the past few years the guys selling Bhuts for $30. + shipping on the net per plant.
There was and is still a lot of that going around.

Prices are dropping but I still think,as you do,that the price some of these people are charging for stuff is way too much.
But they are still selling the stuff and getting away with it.

Green Arrow/Thumb is/was a small chain of garden supply stores/nurseries.

Their management decides who they buy from etc.
It's all set up according to supply and demand and what it takes to keep their customers walking through the door and spending $.
They have a reputation to keep up and don't think selling Bhuts and Nagas for a rediculious price is cool to do.

They have been in biz since I was a kid or longer but were forced to close a couple of their locations this year after 30-40+ years in opperation at those places.
Can't compete with Homey Depote or Lowes...

I guess it's all on what ideals their management hold as good biz ethics.

I spend a lot of $ there because it's 100yrds up the street and,for the most part, they don't try and sell me snake oil because it's the newest thing that some company sells them for cheep and they can mark up more than other stuff that might work better.

Their plants are in better shape and the selection usually beats other chain stores too.

 

[ThePepperGrowingMan]

I live in a small town - 3Kish people about an hour or two west of Chicago. The local nursery last year had multiple trays of bhuts and a few other super hot types too. They were selling for $6 a plant I think. Only problem I noticed was the size - it was late may or early June and they were still just little tiny sprouts. With the short growing season we have around here I think anyone who bought one would have been disappointed...highly doubt they could have harvested a single pepper before the snow started falling.

 

[Capsicumexanthematicus]

It really does seem like it's only a matter of time. Bhut jolokia might not become a household name, but ghost pepper likely will. We'll see it as an ingerdient on menu's in trendy restaurants and eventually McIlhenny will come out with 'Tabasco Ghost Pepper Sauce'. As far as Scorpions and 7 pots, and the like; I think we'll start to see them creep into the more mainstream seed catalogs and eventually nuseries, and ultimately major chains.

As far as the most recent World Record contenders however, the naga viper, infinity pepper, and the like. I don't see them getting mainstream acceptance outside of the chili head community. Since they're hybrids bred from more recognizable varieties of C. chinense. I see them as being recieved as more of a particular type of whatever constituent varieties they came from. It won't be until someone discovers a 2 million scoville pepper being grown in a remote part of the solomon's islands or some other obscure locality that we'll see the next big rise to mainstream fame.

 

[POTAWIE]

Real habaneros aren't even really mainstream, at least in my parts. I'm sure it really depends on where you live and the number of foreigners or immigrants in the area, as well as hot-sauce makers. In the UK where there is a high Indian population, there is apparently more demand for super-hots. I think Tesco stores sell ghost pepers but I've heard they are a tamer version or often something else mislabelled as ghost peppers.
Even in Mexico, habaneros are the only really hot chile and you only really see them near the Yucatan peninsula.

As Willard3 says

Mexican food is not really that picante with a few exceptions.

This picture is from an open mercado in Guanajuato state and has poblanos, dried arboles, manzanos, Xalapas and serranos. With chipotles, these are the chiles used most in the cuisine.

The super hots are what the Mexicans call "machismo" and I've never seen them in a market.

 

[Omri]

The supermarkets here usually carry a type of green NuMex chiles. the bigger chains carry multiple types as Serranos and Anaheims. some carry types of Birdseye, too. the local markets here have a wider selection.

 

[Bob_B]

I remember back in the early nineties when I heard about habaneros for the first time and it seemed like orange was the only color they came in. Now everyone knows what they are and you can buy them from almost any grocery store's produce section. Most nurseries will have seedlings in the spring of five or more varieties.

What I'm wondering is, when will we see the super hots reach this level of mainstream fame. How long will it be before I can walk into the gardening section of home depot and pick up a tray or two of trinidad scorpion seedlings? When will I be able to go to safeway and pick up a couple pounds of bhut jolokias? And, when or if this time comes, what will the chili heads be growing?

I don't think so... Our Home Depot and Lowes sell "mainstream" vegetables only. Peppers and tomatoes are offered only in the varieties that really empty the shelves. I don't see that changing. I've occasionally walked into a nursery that offered Caribbean Reds, but rarely. Pepper aficionandos are a rare breed like the peppers they love to grow..... a very small segment of the population that they don't target.

Now if you're at a Saturday vegetable market in Bangkok or New Delhi, it's a different story all together....

 

[Capsicumexanthematicus]

I don't think so... Our Home Depot and Lowes sell "mainstream" vegetables only. Peppers and tomatoes are offered only in the varieties that really empty the shelves. I don't see that changing. I've occasionally walked into a nursery that offered Caribbean Reds, but rarely. Pepper aficionandos are a rare breed like the peppers they love to grow..... a very small segment of the population that they don't target.

Now if you're at a Saturday vegetable market in Bangkok or New Delhi, it's a different story all together....

I disagree, I think if you filled a shelf with bhut seedlings and put up a big sign that read "Ghost Pepper; the hottest pepper you can buy", they would sell out in one weekend. Carribean reds are a diffrent story, the average consumer can't distinguish them from any other habanero variety. Scorpions and the like, also dont have the street cred yet, but I think it's only a matter of time. People will want to grow these purely for the novelty of bragging about having the worlds hottest peppers in their garden.

 

[Bob_B]

I disagree, I think if you filled a shelf with bhut seedlings and put up a big sign that read "Ghost Pepper; the hottest pepper you can buy", they would sell out in one weekend. Carribean reds are a diffrent story, the average consumer can't distinguish them from any other habanero variety. Scorpions and the like, also dont have the street cred yet, but I think it's only a matter of time. People will want to grow these purely for the novelty of bragging about having the worlds hottest peppers in their garden.

Perhaps you're right and there's a niche somewhere....

I'm speaking for myself and for the demographic I think I represent in terms of the pepper world when I say that I don't think the big box stores will give a flip about SH's. I grow Superhots in the garden because of the novelty factor and because they are cool looking plants - not because I like to eat them. At the point I'm at today with this hobby, I'm concentrating on flavor. With the limited space I have I grow mostly Anaheims, Jalapenos, Datils, Caribbean Reds, chiltepins, Goat Horns - peppers that I have through years of growing and eating found suit my palate the best.

For the record, I'm growing Bhuts, 7 pots, and Trinidad Scorpions but just a couple of each. I will mostly turn these into powder and isolate seeds for trade. I know it's a matter of individual taste, but I haven't had a SH yet that even closely approaches the flavor profile of a good, red ripe, fully corked jalapeno or an Anaheim.... IMHO.