1. One of the best ways to cure the burning effect of chili peppers is to eat some natural yogurt.
2. It is not the seeds of chili peppers that makes them hot, but the substance known as Capsaicin that covers the seeds and the inner compartments of the pepper.
3. Chili peppers are very high in vitamin C, making them a great way to help ward of colds!
4. Generally speaking the smaller chili peppers are, the hotter they are. Don’t take our word for it though, there are a few exceptions!
5. The heat of chili peppers is measured on a scale that uses “Scoville units” as its measure. The greater the units, the hotter the pepper! e.g a bell pepper might be around 100 units where as the scorching Naga Morich may be as high as 1.5 million units!!
6. Chili peppers are surprisingly easy to grow. Why not check out our chili pepper growing guide to find out just how easy.
7. Chili peppers are thought to have first been eaten by humans as long ago as 7500 BC in the Americas, perhaps earlier.
8. The explorer Christopher Columbus was one of the first Europeans to encounter chili peppers (in the Caribbean). He called them peppers apparently because the heat they generated was similar to that produced by the unrelated “black pepper” commonly used to season food.
9. In the Philipines & Korea they even eat the leaves of chili pepper plants. The bitter foliage is often added to soups
10. There are 3 different generally accepted spellings of “chili”; chili (Spanish/South American) , chile (North American) and chilli (British).
