USDA Researchers Find the Hot Stuff

If jalapeno peppers and hot sauce leave you cold, researchers have something that will set your taste buds on fire and make them beg for mercy.

They have developed a new cayenne pepper “more than 20 times hotter than a jalapeno pepper” and two to three times hotter than peppers used in hot sauce, said Philip D. Dukes, a plant pathologist with the Agricultural Research Service.

More than a decade of pepper research went into developing this chili-lover’s dream--or nightmare, depending on the eater’s fire resistance.

Called Charleston Hot, the pepper can be grown almost anywhere in the United States, said Dukes, who developed it along with geneticist Richard L. Fery at the U.S. Vegetable Laboratory in Charleston, S.C.

“Home gardeners will like this new variety because it doesn’t take up as much space as other cayenne pepper varieties,” Dukes said. “It only grows to about 18 inches high. It’s also colorful and produces excellent yields of about two pounds of fresh peppers per plant. We think it will also appeal to commercial growers.”