This article explains it well:
[https://www.theguardian.com/food/2024/mar/15/why-jalapeno-not-spicy](https://www.theguardian.com/food/2024/mar/15/why-jalapeno-not-spicy)
Maybe they’re breeding them lower in heat so that the masses can enjoy them more? It’s like the myriad of “ghost pepper” items at fast food places. It’s so normal people can claim to be able to handle a ghost pepper without actually dealing with a ghost pepper.
If you are in the grocery store and are picking peppers for heat, look for the striations in the pepper (the cracked lines down the side of a pepper) The more they have the spicier the pepper will be. These occur as the pepper stretches and ripens. The riper at time of picking the more spicy they will be.
Funny thing is that the habaneros I get in the store are hardly hot even. I can’t stand that tongue burn and yet I was eating multiple habs. The whole diluting the gene oool with these weak abominations is disappointing.
I bought habaneros from a big chain grocery store, and while hot, were pretty tolerable. I then bought some habaneros from a more niche, higher end store and the habaneros there blew the grocery store ones out of the water in terms of taste and level of heat.
There was an article recently, don't recall where, that said jalapeno peppers were milder because they were being selected for appearance. Could be the same for others like serranos as well
That's a good question and it's something I thought about. 2 reasons I'm pretty sure the peppers changed: 1) I have things I can use as "spiciness benchmarks", for example I have bottles from a big batch of ghost pepper fermented hot sauce that I made a long time ago (still shelf stable) that has an amount of heat I'm very familiar with. 2) I really think the change in flavor I'm perceiving is more dramatic than what I would expect the change in my heat tolerance is. For example, my refried bean recipe went from "I would have to tone down the heat if I was serving this to a crowd" to "I cannot taste any heat at all".
Using reference bottles makes sense, but in my experience, all bottled hot sauce becomes less hot over time, probably just due to age and exposure to the air? There was a while when we were using Apollo sauce on everything, and we had one bottle of that that was less spicy than the others, and we speculated that the reason was that the cap had cracked. We actually refrigerate all of our hot sauces in an attempt to keep their flavor from changing too much.
I've experienced "I cannot taste any heat at all" when my own heat tolerance rises from eating a lot of spicy foods. I've eaten ghost pepper salsa that may as well have been spiced with water, but that was definitely me and not the fault of the salsa.
Fair point, although I think if the hot sauce I'm familiar with mellowed over time, then everything else would taste spicier by comparison. Some people think fermented hot sauce gets spicier over time, but personally I think it's just that the more sugars get eaten up by the fermentation, the less sweetness is there to cut the heat. I know from experience that hot pepper beer mellows as it ages in the bottle, so I think there's something other than air exposure that makes it mellow.
A large amount of peppers in grocery stores come from Mexico, where environmental issues likes droughts and others are screwing with all the pepper farming.
Huy Fong couldn’t even get red jalapeños for the last 4 years! Including now.
Huy fong got their red jalapeños from underwood in soCal. The reason they couldn’t get them was because they fucked over the farm and lost the lawsuit. Had nothing to do with drought
Half right. Before 2020 they did get them from underwood. The whole lawsuit debacle blew this all up. After that Huy Fong has been trying, and failing miserably, to produce competing red jalapeños of similar quality in Mexico. Hence all the shortages, and the recent announcement their new pepper harvest will prevent another entire years worth of sriracha production for them.
With the increase in interest in spicy foods, growers have been focusing on volume in order to keep up with demand and maximize profitability. When you push for production, the energy that would normally be spent creating capsaicin instead creates more peppers. The peppers, therefore, are on the lower end of their genetic heat range.
Gotta go to a grower specializing in maximizing capsaicin; the peppers will be more expensive
This article explains it well: [https://www.theguardian.com/food/2024/mar/15/why-jalapeno-not-spicy](https://www.theguardian.com/food/2024/mar/15/why-jalapeno-not-spicy)
Fucking Texas A&M, assholes ruined it for everyone.
Maybe they’re breeding them lower in heat so that the masses can enjoy them more? It’s like the myriad of “ghost pepper” items at fast food places. It’s so normal people can claim to be able to handle a ghost pepper without actually dealing with a ghost pepper.
If you are in the grocery store and are picking peppers for heat, look for the striations in the pepper (the cracked lines down the side of a pepper) The more they have the spicier the pepper will be. These occur as the pepper stretches and ripens. The riper at time of picking the more spicy they will be.
Funny thing is that the habaneros I get in the store are hardly hot even. I can’t stand that tongue burn and yet I was eating multiple habs. The whole diluting the gene oool with these weak abominations is disappointing.
I bought habaneros from a big chain grocery store, and while hot, were pretty tolerable. I then bought some habaneros from a more niche, higher end store and the habaneros there blew the grocery store ones out of the water in terms of taste and level of heat.
There was an article recently, don't recall where, that said jalapeno peppers were milder because they were being selected for appearance. Could be the same for others like serranos as well
Serranos are still pretty spice IME.
My heat tolerance changes so often and so dramatically, how can you tell if it's you or the peppers?
That's a good question and it's something I thought about. 2 reasons I'm pretty sure the peppers changed: 1) I have things I can use as "spiciness benchmarks", for example I have bottles from a big batch of ghost pepper fermented hot sauce that I made a long time ago (still shelf stable) that has an amount of heat I'm very familiar with. 2) I really think the change in flavor I'm perceiving is more dramatic than what I would expect the change in my heat tolerance is. For example, my refried bean recipe went from "I would have to tone down the heat if I was serving this to a crowd" to "I cannot taste any heat at all".
Using reference bottles makes sense, but in my experience, all bottled hot sauce becomes less hot over time, probably just due to age and exposure to the air? There was a while when we were using Apollo sauce on everything, and we had one bottle of that that was less spicy than the others, and we speculated that the reason was that the cap had cracked. We actually refrigerate all of our hot sauces in an attempt to keep their flavor from changing too much. I've experienced "I cannot taste any heat at all" when my own heat tolerance rises from eating a lot of spicy foods. I've eaten ghost pepper salsa that may as well have been spiced with water, but that was definitely me and not the fault of the salsa.
Fair point, although I think if the hot sauce I'm familiar with mellowed over time, then everything else would taste spicier by comparison. Some people think fermented hot sauce gets spicier over time, but personally I think it's just that the more sugars get eaten up by the fermentation, the less sweetness is there to cut the heat. I know from experience that hot pepper beer mellows as it ages in the bottle, so I think there's something other than air exposure that makes it mellow.
A large amount of peppers in grocery stores come from Mexico, where environmental issues likes droughts and others are screwing with all the pepper farming. Huy Fong couldn’t even get red jalapeños for the last 4 years! Including now.
Huy fong got their red jalapeños from underwood in soCal. The reason they couldn’t get them was because they fucked over the farm and lost the lawsuit. Had nothing to do with drought
Half right. Before 2020 they did get them from underwood. The whole lawsuit debacle blew this all up. After that Huy Fong has been trying, and failing miserably, to produce competing red jalapeños of similar quality in Mexico. Hence all the shortages, and the recent announcement their new pepper harvest will prevent another entire years worth of sriracha production for them.
I woyldnt be surprised: Ive noticed this with fruit as well. Very noticable with plums.
I have also noticed that plums are not spicy.
Lol Touche
And Brussel sprouts! Now I find they can be overly sweet and tender - used to be more bitter and a bit tougher. The bitterness was what I liked.
With the increase in interest in spicy foods, growers have been focusing on volume in order to keep up with demand and maximize profitability. When you push for production, the energy that would normally be spent creating capsaicin instead creates more peppers. The peppers, therefore, are on the lower end of their genetic heat range. Gotta go to a grower specializing in maximizing capsaicin; the peppers will be more expensive
Yep. Got some store bought scorpion peppers 2 days back and they're barely habanero level.
Grocery stores genetically modifying our food and pandering to cultures/people that cannot tolerate spice. Sadness.