SpiceLines

In “Global Warming,” (December 20, 2008)—sorry, it was at the bottom of the clipping pile—The Economist looks closely at man’s hunger for blisteringly hot foods. At the top of the Scoville chart is the Dorset Naga, a Bangladeshi chili whose reported rating of 1.6 million units “is close to the 2 m[illion] score of pepper spray used in riot control.” Developed commercially in England by Michael Michaud, owner of Peppers by Post, after he spied it in “an ethnic food shop,” the Dorset Naga was an instant smash hit.

In 2007 the supermarket chain Tesco sold out of 400 packs almost as soon as they reached the shelves. “It is the only food product that Tesco will not sell to children,” says the Economist’s unnamed writer—who also claims to have “guzzled a packet of nagas while writing this article” and who admits to putting Tabasco in his coffee.

So what’s it like to eat a Dorset Naga? Watch this You Tube video from the Hippy Seed Company. Four minutes after blithely chomping a triangular orange-red chili with “an orangish, pineapplish taste,” a choking, hiccupping, sweating Aussie moans, “Seriously, don’t do this…my tongue...the back of my throat…the top of my mouth…I can’t feel it…” A few minutes later: “I hope I don’t have a heart attack...”

But look again. He’s in agony, but isn’t there just a trace of deep, almost subliminal satisfaction as well? As in: “It hurts so good?” According to The Economist, this is why chili-lovers seek out ever hotter peppers: Capsaicin, the compound that causes chilies' burning sensation, may cause severe pain, but then comes the pleasure. “The blood stream floods with endorphins—the closest thing to morphine that the body produces. The result is a high. And the more capsaicin you ingest, the bigger and better the high.”

As an aside, consider the “pink fix”—cocaine laced with powdered chilies.

Still a craving for chiles isn’t regarded as a true addiction. University of Pennsylvania psychology professor Paul Rozin calls the experience of eating hot peppers “benign mascochism….doing something painful and seemingly dangerous, in the knowledge that it won’t do any permanent harm.”

But hot peppers have other virtues. For one thing, “capsaicin excites the trigeminal nerve,” which intensifies the body’s perception of flavor. (Maybe that’s why those cheesy nachos topped with pickled jalapenos are so delicious.) It also shuts down part of the nervous system—“transient receptor potential vanilloid 1”—reducing the pain associated with rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and chemotherapy.

There’s already a capsaicin-based Botox rival. Can a Dorset Naga-based mood elevator be far behind?

Note: Michael Michaud’s Really Cool Seeds is, according to its website, the only authorized seller of Dorset Naga seeds. Interestingly, the company rates the Dorset Naga at only 1 million Scoville Heat Units, similar to the Indian bhut jolokia.