There are chili peppers and then there are the famed Ghost Chilis, the Bhut Jolokia, from northeastern India. -- The Guiness Book of World Records certified Bhut Jolokia as the hottest spice in the world. But it took the Chile Pepper Institute at New Mexico State University to bring them to the masses in this exceptional hot sauce, Holy Jolokia. Holy Jolokia has plenty of that amazing Bhut Jolokia heat, but not so much that your palate can't detect the unique flavor of the peppers. It's what we call "Powerfully hot, not overpowering."-- In 2001, a graduate student at New Mexico State University visited India and sent some Bhut Jolokia seeds back to the CPI. (Bhut Jolokia is also known as Naga Jolokia (King Cobra Chili), Naga Morich, Naga Jolokia, Bih Jolokia, Borbih Jolokia, Nagahari, Nagajolokia, and Raja Mirchi.) Over the next few years, CPI Director Paul Bosland grew Bhut Jolokia, Red Savina, and Habanero peppers under controlled settings. In 2005, Dr. Bosland tested the three peppers' "hotness" using the Scoville Heat Units (SHUs) rating system. He discovered the Bhut Jolokia to rate a whopping 1,001,304 SHU's...twice the SHU's of the Red Savina and three times the Habanero! Finally, in 2007, The Guiness Book of World Records confirmed, with a certificate issued to Dr. Bosland, that the Ghost Chilis of Assam, India were indeed the hottest in the world! -- But CPI didn't stop there: they wanted to make the Bhut Jolokia marketable in the West. So they set out to make a tasty sauce from this new "Hottest Pepper In The World." Partnering with CaJohns Fiery Foods, they worked on a variety of combinations before settling on a recipe that mixes pure Bhut Jolokia grown in India with vinegar, sugar, sale, garlic, and lemon extract. The result is the Holy Jolokia Hot Sauce featured here...powerfully hot, but not overpowering.-- Now a portion of the price of every bottle of Holy Jolokia goes to support the work of CPI.
