Distiller magazine a publication of the American Distilling Institute, the Voice of Artisan Distilling; devoted to the craft spirits industry: vendors and distillers alike.
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fall 2020 | 107 A chilled drink of something hot: To create a paradoxical product use chili heat in a drink designed to be served cold. Careful selection of which chili pepper to use and how to process it can rein in heat and showcase the phe- nomenal flavor of chilies. In a cultivation tunnel full of chili plants, Michael, of Sea Spring Seeds, handed me a pale orange chili and told me to eat it. He said it had all the flavor of a chili but was not hot. Even though I watched him eat one I was not convinced, thinking that he was accustomed to chili and what he experienced as warm could be fearsome for me. I raised the chili to my mouth; it smelled freshly fruity in a very perfumed way. I thought the taste would be worth suffering a bit of chili heat. Its flesh was crisp and delicious with only the smallest glimmer of warmth, barely hotter than a bell pepper. While the first thought for most people about chilies is heat, it is worth recognizing that behind that heat is superb flavor. anks to processing techniques and the vast array of different varieties of chilies available, we can choose how much heat we want to include along with one of the most enticing flavors around. In the continually evolving hierarchy of hottest chili pepper in the world, Michael and Joy Michaud of Sea Spring Seeds devel- oped Dorset Naga, which was for some time the reigning cham- pion. It has since been superseded by the Carolina Reaper. Neither of these are varieties of chili to use in beverages. ey contain so much capsaicin — the molecule we experience as hot pain — that even using a small amount can create a product with scorching heat. While other plants in the Solanaceae family defend them- selves from herbivores with bitter toxic alkaloids, chili plants deter mammals from eating their fruits with capsaicin. To create prod- ucts with more flavor than heat, it pays to look at milder varieties of chilies, which have been selected by humans for characteris- tics other than heat — a contrast to the evolutionary arms race between plants and herbivores where hot chili peppers are more successful. ere are five originally wild species of chili that have been domesticated: Capsicum frutescens, C. chinense, C. annuum, C. pubescens and C. baccatum. Human enjoyment of chili flavor and heat has led to these wild species being domesticated and crossbred, with near infinite selections being made to create a vast repertoire of chili varieties. A type of habanero chili called "Apricot" was the one Michael had given me to taste right off the plant. Chili heat is recorded in Scoville Heat Units (SHU). Pleasingly pale orange in color and gentle in heat at 700 SHU, Apricot is an easy chili to add to drinks. Even milder in heat and a little sweet is Trinidad Perfume, another habanero chili without the heat. Banana Pepper chilies are even milder, at about 500 SHU. ey are a long way from the heat of the Carolina Reaper, which is 2.2 million SHU, and Dorset Naga at 1.2 million SHU. While other plants in the Solanaceae family defend themselves from herbivores with bitter toxic alkaloids, chili plants deter mammals from eating their fruits with capsaicin.