Eating chillies

Yesterday at the Hornbill Festival, they held a Naga Chilli eating competition for the first time. The winner popped 8 of the fiery peppers, known as raja mircha, ('king chilli'), Naga jolokia, bhut jolokia.

This may not seem like a lot to people used to popping  which may not sound like a lot, unless you know that these chillies have been found to rate up to 1,041,427 units on the Scoville scale which is a measure of spicy heat. Wikipedia gives the rating for Tabasco sauce as between 2,500 to 5,000 units, while bird's eye chillies rate between 50,000 to 100,000 units. The only chilli hotter than raja mircha is a hybrid called the Naga Viper made by cross-breeding the raja mircha and two other chillies and was developed in the UK.

Prize-winning chillies at the horticultural centre next to the Hornbill Festival grounds at Kisama.


In any case, these are still the hottest chillies in the world that are being cultivated and consumed en masse. There are even reports that the Indian army plan to put them in hand grenades. Dangerous stuff.