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Worlds fiercest chilli pepper to be unleashed across UK

Tesco

15 August 2008

The world’s fiercest chilli pepper is finally about to go on sale across Britain.
Originating in Bangladesh but now grown in the West Country, the Dorset Naga is so scorchingly hot that chefs are advised to wear gloves when preparing it.
The tiny chilli recently made global news when it was used to make the world’s hottest curry, a Bollywood Burner in a London restaurant.
Said Tesco exotic vegetable buyer Jonathan Corbett: “The Dorset Chilli is something only absolute connoisseurs of very hot food and those with asbestos lined stomachs should even consider trying.
“However, that said, there are an increasing number of chilli heads as they are officially known, that not only savour but endorse these tiny vegetables as being beneficial in helping sweat out the body’s toxins.
“We trialled them in our test kitchens and even the hardest blokes in our team were brought to their knees.
“To give some indication to the hot chilli pepper novice, this variety is so seeringly hot that it makes a Vindaloo curry seem like a bowl of muesli. “
The Dorset Naga created a stir last year when it went on a week long trial at a Tesco store in Newcastle - Britain’s chilli pepper capital.
Demand was so overwhelming that Tesco are its supplier to grow more and these will arrive in stores from Monday.
Amazingly the chilli has been cultivated in Dorset thanks to the pioneering growing technique of local vegetable grower Michael Michaud.
He bought some seeds of an extremely hot chilli – a Naga Morich - from a local Asian grocer and then experimented with it to create a strain much, much hotter.
The heat of a chilli pepper is measured in Scoville Units and the former record holding chilli pepper, a Red Savina, gave a reading of 577,000 Scovilles.
But to everyone’s amazement the Dorset Naga measured treble that – giving a reading of a fever-inducing 1.6 million Scovilles.
It’s being stocked by Tesco because of Britain’s current love affair with hot food and hot chilli peppers in general.
In the last year, demand for hot chilli peppers across all retailers has grown by 18 per cent swelling the market to £9 million a year, says independent retail analyst AC Nielsen. At Tesco the growth has been 29 per cent in the last year.
Due to the growing demand Tesco has double its range inside the last 12 months to include ever exotic varieties including Scotch Bonnet, Bird’s Eye, Cherry Bomb, Green, Red, Finger, Rocket and Orange Topaz.
Added Tesco’s Jonathan Corbett: “Chilli pepper culture in the UK has really come on in the last few years and they are no longer thought of as a culinary novelty.
“In the past we used to primarily stock chilli peppers in areas where there was a large Afro-Caribbean or Asian community but nowadays we sell them in stores right across Britain.
The Dorset Naga will be sold in 10g sachets which contain up to three chillis. They cost 89p per sachet.
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For more information and pictures please contact Tesco Press Office on 01992 644645