Chili can be spelled differently in different countries, in the UK, it is spelled as “chili”.. Chilli can be spelt many different ways in America. It’s commonly spelled with 1 L so that’s Chilli. In the UK, South Africa, Sinagpore, India, New Zealand, Australia, and many other countries. It’s spelled with two L’s so that’s c-h-i-l-l-i. In many Spanish speaking countries, it’s spelt with an E so c-h-i-l-e. The one-way chile can’t be spelled is p-e-p-p-e-r. The reason that people call chili’s pepper is thanks to Christopher Columbus back in 1400s when Christopher was doing his thing. Black pepper or peppercorns were a hot commodity, they were hugely expensive and were often used as currency in many countries. Columbs who was trying to find India ended up in America. He returned to Spain with a bunch of chilli plants that the Spanish monasteries growed. After a little while these chillis started to be used tas a cheal substitute for black pepper.
Species and Varieties
There are more than 50 species of chilies. The five most common are annum, baccatum, Chinese, frutescent and pubescence. There are also more than 50,00- varieties of chilies out there and more are being created every year.
Are Peppers Chillies?
Pepper, bell peppers sweet peppers that you buy at the supermarket are actually chillis. They are part of the capsicum annuum species which are part of the genius capsicum all plants in the capsicum chilies.
Different Varieties
Green Peppers yellow peppers and red peppers are all exactly the same thing they’re just varying stages of ripeness that is why red pepper tastes so much better because it’s got a lot more sweetness to it. That’s why red peppers can often cost more than green or yellow peppers because it takes about a month for those peppers to fully ripen.
Origin of Chillies
Chiles were first cultivated as a crop in south Amercia more than 8000 years ago. People in Mexico were picking chiles long before but they were the wild smaller varieties. In fact, until 1492 the only continent that had chili’s was America.
Not all chili seeds are white, capsicum pubescens species of chilies have black seeds. Another fact about the capsicum pubescens species of chilies is that they are so called because the leaves and the stems are hairy they also have some beautiful purple flowers.
Jalapenos
Jalapenos ripen to red , a lot of people think that green jalapenos are ripe because that’s the way they are most commonly eaten. In fact, the hui fong brand of sriracha uses red jalapenos to make their delicious sauce. They are used to ripe serranos but they switched that over a good few decades back.
The hottest chili in the world according to the Guinness Book of Records is the Carolina reaper at 2.2 million Scoville. They are arguably hotter chilies out there that make chili spicy is rated at 16 million Scoville. However, there’s something out there that makes capsaicin seem like a wimp I’m talking about resiniferatoxin or rtx it is found in a cactus-like plant that grows in Morocco. It is rated at 16 billion Scoville which is 1000 times hotter than pure capsaicin.
Healthy Benefits
Eating chilies has been shown to have health benefits they are very rich in vitamins like Vitamin C, Vitamin b6, copper, potassium, and beta-carotene which convert to vitamin A. In your body contrary to popular belief eating chilies will not cause heartburn and it will not create stomach ulcers in fact studies have shown that eating chilies regularly can actually help with heartburn caused by acid reflux and it can also help your stomach from forming ulcers in the first place. Studies have also shown that people that eat chilies regularly have reduced risk of death from cardiovascular disease as well as cancer.
Burning Effect
Spicy chilies do not actually burn you or cause any physical pain. What’s happening is the capsicum is binding with your pain receptors causing the sensation of burning. It doesn’t make it any less painful but it’s good to know at least that your body isn’t falling apart inside. The good news is your body can become desensitized to this pain over time bad news is that this desensitization goes away after about two or three days.
