Dear Editor,

In a letter published in the July 2, 2008 edition of the Guyana Chronicle captioned ‘Much room for improvement,’ Mr Leon J Suseran stated as fact that the jalapeño pepper is “the fourth hottest with some 2500-10,000 Scoville Units (units used to measure how hot a pepper is) of hotness.”

The jalapeño pepper is not even in the top 10 or 20 of hottest peppers. Here is a partial list of the hottest peppers and their levels of pungency – Scoville Heat Units (SHUs) – as measured by Dr Paul Bosland, a professor at New Mexico State University, and which by the way, anyone can look up on the web:
Bhut Jolokia (1,001,304); Red Savina Habanero (350,000 – 577,000); Chocolate Habanero (200,000 – 385,000); Orange Habanero and Scotch Bonnet (150,000 – 325,000); Devil Toung & Fatalii (125,000-325,000), Tepin (80,000 – 240,000); Birds Eye (100,000-225,000); Jamaican Hot (100,000 – 200,000); Kumataka (125,000-150,0000; Carolina Cayenne (100,000-125,000); Bahamian (95,000-110,000); Tabiche (85,000-115,000); Thai (50,000-100-000); etc.

The University of the West Indies lists the pungency levels of some Caribbean varieties of peppers as follows: Red Scotch Bonnet mature (900,000), immature (500,000); Scorpion mature (> 1,000,000); Tiger Teeth mature (155,000); Wiri Wiri mature $150,000), etc.

Fellow Guyanese would know some of these peppers by different names, like Bull Nose, Seven Pod, Bird pepper, etc. Other studies have been done and some are prejudicial in their findings (we all want to believe that we grow the hottest and the best), but by and large most agree on the top 20 or 25, even if not in the same order as above. I am sure that there are many varieties still that have not been tested and that their level of hotness would compare favourably to some of the above. Furthermore, Guyana’s climate – hot with lots of rain and its silty soil along the coast, is perfect for growing hot peppers. This probably explains why the same varieties that are grown in other Caribbean countries do not have the same level of hotness as those in Guyana.

I do not know where in Guyana Mr Suseran lives, but any Guyanese worth his or her salt would know at least 4 or 5 varieties of pepper hotter than jalapeño. In fact, in North America, where I happen to live, we Guyanese scoff at jalapeño and other varieties that pass for ‘hot’ pepper. I recommend that Mr Suseran use milk or yogurt to diminish the burning effects the next time he decides to tackle hot pepper.

Yours faithfully,
Mohamed Z Rahaman