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This Week in AsiaLifestyle & Culture

India’s ‘ghost pepper’ chilli is so hot villagers use it to repel elephants. Will Britain be able to handle it?

  • The bhut jolokia is India’s hottest chilli – it’s 400 times hotter than Tabasco sauce and can induce breathing difficulties in diners
  • Ghost peppers are often deployed at chilli-eating competitions, where ambulances wait nearby in case competitors need their stomachs washed

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Bhut jolokia piled at a market in Kohima, Nagaland. Photo: Kalpana Sunder
Kalpana Sunder

India’s hottest chilli, the bhut jolokia, is 400 times hotter than Tabasco sauce and can induce breathing difficulties in diners. In 2007, it was declared the spiciest chilli in the world, a title it held for four years. In July it was exported to Britain for the first time.

Its heat is so ferocious that Indian villagers use it to keep wild elephants away by smearing it across walls and fences. Bhut jolokia has even been used by the Indian military in smoke grenades, and in pepper sprays for self-defence. It was the first pepper to reach 1 million units on the Scoville scale, which measures a chilli’s pungency, although it has since been surpassed by the Carolina Reaper and the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion.

Bhut jolokia, which means Bhutanese pepper, is also known as the “ghost pepper”, Naga chilli or Raja Mircha. Grown mainly in the states of Assam, Nagaland and Manipur, it has a distinctive, pungent smell and has been used in meat dishes for centuries.

In these northeastern states, masalas are less popular than in the rest of the country, so the chilli is used to add extra kick to pork, chicken and fish recipes. Chicken is often cooked with dry bamboo shoots and ghost peppers. King chilli chutney is another staple, made with axone (fermented soybean), Naga garlic and dried fish. It can also be combined with mustard oil to make a fiery dip.

For Papori Bharati, who works in the travel industry in Delhi, ghost peppers remind her of her home in Assam.

“Bhut jolokia is more than just a chilli,” she said. “It’s an emotion for us Assamese people – it’s not only about the level of spice but it’s unique fruity, citrus flavour which is just out of the world. I love it in a pickle with bamboo shoot and mustard oil and it always reminds me of home.

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