On 2010-03-26, Dan Abel > wrote:

> Individual peppers vary widely in their hotness.

Very much so.

My med high capsaicin tolerance renders jalapeno peppers a tolerable
distraction on my "hot" scale. But, even canned jalapenos, cooked
along with their seeds and fairly hot compared to fresh, didn't
prepare me for my Mexican neighbor's fresh home grown jalapenos.

"Do you like jalapenos?"
"Sure. I eat them all the time" (smug smirk)
"Here. Try ours. We grow them ourselves"
"Ahh-aaah (gasp!) ...aahh!... erk..."
"Are you okay?" (smug smirk)

Those suckers were at least 3 times hotter than any jalapeno I'd ever
eaten, so beware. Chile growers love to pull this kinda thing on the
unwary.

nb