Not so in super-hots like the Death Spiral. In most peppers, the capsaicin is concentrated in the seeds and pith, so removing them tames the heat. In its pure form, capsaicin is a yellowish liquid, and you can sometimes see the yellow veins in a pepper and guess how hot it will taste. The Death Spiral features a similar bumpy, wrinkly skin, but the calyx - where the stem joins the pod - remains green, unlike on the Naga Bubblegum Red.Ĭhilies get their heat from the alkaloid compound capsaicin. Duffy named and released the Death Spiral pepper after the 2017 growout.

He saved the seeds, grew them in isolation to prevent cross pollination, and achieved the same results in several generations. Jim Duffy of Refining Fire Chilesnoticed a variant of the Naga Bubblegum Red chili (the seeds of which he received from English grower Terry Smith) growing among his plants in 2016. The Death Spiral, also known as Death Pepper, is a member of the Capsicum chinense family, and it’s a fairly new arrival on the super-hot scene.

Today’s super-hot varieties like the Carolina Reaper, Devil’s Tongue and Trinidad Scorpion throw down their names like a dare. Christopher Columbus took them back to Spain in 1493, but it was Portuguese explorers who planted the worldwide spread of chilies when they carried seeds from Brazil to India a few years after Columbus. Chili peppers are a global crop with roots in the ancient world of the Americas.

Carolina reaper seeds germination time