All language subtitles for Chiliheads.2021.ALTERNATIVE.CUT.1080p.WEBRip.x264-CBFM

♪

(Dave)
Chili peppers always had

an aura of mystery about them.

There are so many

different varieties
of chili peppers,

and so many different cuisines

that have chili peppers in them.

And there's more chili peppers

that are being grown
now than ever before

in the history of the world.

♪

(basket thumping)

(leaves rustling)

♪

(Ivette)
It's something
that carries personality.

It's something that
makes people smile,

it makes people laugh.

It's something
that causes people

to have physical reactions.

♪

(Troy)
What is more rock and roll

than hot peppers?

It's an endorphin
enkephalin rush,

I think it's a safe
alternative to drug use.

♪

(machines whirring)

(Ivette)
Some people are
so obsessed with it.

I feel like that started
a frenzy in chiliheads,

and everybody wanted to see
who could make it hotter

and hotter and hotter.

♪

Definitely, it is a pepper war.

(people cheering)

(crunching)

(Dave)
I'm afraid that somebody

is going to overdose
on super hot peppers

to the point where
they can't breathe.

(announcer speaking
incoherently)

How can these peppers
have so much power over people?

(seeds rustling)

♪

(narrator)
Mankind has
a strange relationship

with the hot chili pepper.

(people cheering)

Throughout history,

every culture that
has been exposed

to this fruit that bites back

has formed an immediate
fascination with it.

Love it or hate it,

the hot pepper has now

taken over the world.

(leaves rustling)

(pensive music)

♪

At once a source of pain

and of pleasure,

hot peppers create
strong reactions

in everyone who tastes them.

♪

Some are repelled

by the sensation they bring,

while others seem
to become addicted

and seek stronger
and stronger sources.

♪

Humans' fascination
with the pepper

has caused them
to propagate the plant

in every corner of the Earth.

The pepper's chemical
defense mechanism

has ironically made it
become a popular food

in cultures all over the world.

♪

Could this be
the mythical forbidden fruit:

a simple seedpod

bestowed with the ability

to bring both good and evil?

♪

(birds chirping)

♪

But what motivates humans

to play with fire like this?

♪

To find the answer
to this apparent contradiction,

we have to travel back in time.

Science is tracing the history
of man's obsession

with the chili pepper.

♪

(Ivette)
I think it's just novel,

you know, it's so cool

to see a plant produce

something so toxic.

In peppers,

capsaicin is produced

so herbivores
don't eat the peppers

before the seeds are ready.

So, it's a way
to communicate with animals.

Capsaicin is only produced

in chili peppers.

They turn on something

in our bodies.

So, in our mouth,

it's going to feel like heat.

So these are the same receptors
that detect pain.

The compound makes your body

think that it is
temperature even though

there's no actual
temperature to it,

and since it's on
the nerve cells,

you could actually damage
your nerve cells.

And it's volatile,

so you can also feel it

in the air,

and it can actually
get on your skin

without you even touching it.

(mortar and pestle scraping)

♪

All the records
that we have suggest

that they were
incredibly important

to the Indigenous people
of the Americas.

In terms of historic evidence,

we've basically learned

that chili peppers
were incredibly sacred.

They take part in,
for example, origin stories.

We do have Spanish chroniclers

that talk about
how chili peppers

were used in,
for example, warfare

to be able to sort of
create a tear gas.

(coughing and screaming)

There are certain
ritual spaces that we see

where people were burning
things like chili peppers,

probably to induce
some of the mucus linings,

and there's a sense that this
allowed for an easier uptake

of certain hallucinogenic drugs.

But for the most part,
our sense is that chili peppers

were mainly used
for consumption.

♪

So what we have here

are a few examples

of archeological seeds,

archeological chili pepper seeds

from human feces.

So, this is called paleofeces,

which is just
essentially old poop

that we found in
archeological sites.

But this is just showing you
how hearty these seeds are,

they survive the digestive
system, for example.

And so they have managed

to find their way to us.

(man)
Wow.

(laughing)

It's hard not to
make poop jokes.

(laughing)

The oldest sample
that I've looked at is

a little bit over
10,000 years old,

and we don't think that that's
necessarily the oldest evidence

of chili pepper use
in the Americas, and so...

I think it's probably
one of the earliest plants

that people really engaged with

when they came to the Americas.

(man)
Can we say
that those people were

among the first chiliheads?

I would say they
were chiliheads,

and the history of chiliheads
probably extends further back

than any of us would think.

(birds chirping)

(narrator)
It's believed
that the very first

hot pepper to grow on Earth

sprouted somewhere
in the Bolivian forest.

The plant's seeds
would have been spread by birds,

who are immune to capsaicin,

the chemical that gives
the hot pepper its heat.

♪

(hummingbird's wings buzzing)

♪

In time, the plant
had spread to Mexico,

where it was soon incorporated

into the culture
to the point that

it became synonymous
with the region.

(upbeat music)

(narrator)
The hot pepper
has worked its way

into the very fiber
of life in Mexico.

♪

The spicy fruit
runs in the veins

of the population here.

Mexicans consume chili peppers

raw, dried, smoked,

in sauces, and even in candy.

It's estimated that
the average Mexican

consumes over 34 pounds
of hot peppers each year.

♪

Here in Oaxaca,
a hotbed of Mexican cuisine,

the hot pepper is king.

♪

This is also where Araceli,

an ethnobotanist,
does her research.

(man)
What's the special relationship

between Mexicans
and chili peppers?

And chili peppers?

♪

♪

♪

(bag rustling)

(Araceli sneezes)

(man)
It doesn't bother you?

(serene guitar music)

♪

(narrator)
From generation to generation,

this simple plant has taken root

deep into the culture

and lifestyle of
the people of Mexico.

♪

Nearly every little village

has its own special
relationship,

as is the case
here in Agua Blanca

where the pasilla pepper
is prized

for its incomparable
smoky flavor.

♪

(man)
Where are you getting
your seeds from?

(peppers rustling)

(Manuel conversing
with boy in Spanish)

(peppers plopping into water)

(chickens clucking)

(crickets chirping)

(wood hitting stone)

(bright music)

♪

(narrator)
The aroma, the flavor,

the heat.

Each person has their own reason

for falling under the spell
of the chili pepper.

In the kitchen of
Aurora Toledo Martinez,

the chili enjoys a nearly divine
level of reverence.

(pot sizzling)

♪

(sniffing)

Mmm!

(chilies rustling)

(peppers rustling)

(stone grinding peppers)

(pot bubbling)

(upbeat music)

♪

♪

(children laughing)

♪

♪

(Aurora laughs)

♪

(birds chirping)

(narrator)
While the hot chili pepper

quickly dominated South
and Central America,

it encountered resistance
when moving north,

where local preferences leaned

to a more bland cuisine.

But eventually,
about 150 years ago,

a little pepper
with Mexican origins

somehow took the attention

of American banker
and businessman

Edmund McIlhenny.

Edmund was so taken
with the chili

that he started a new business

making it into a sauce

that he sold under
the name of the pepper:

Tabasco.

(whimsical music)

♪

(Shane)
The mashed-up peppers

ages in these white oak barrels

for up to three years,

and is then blended
with vinegar,

strained of the skins
and seeds, and bottled.

We're actually not sure
how Edmund McIlhenny came up

with the recipe
for Tabasco sauce

or where he got
the peppers from.

One of his children said,

"Oh, Father got the peppers

from a Mexican-American War
veteran who came back

to the U.S. from Mexico

through the Port
of New Orleans."

♪

(machine whirring)

♪

We're in the factory where

all of the bottling
of Tabasco sauce goes on.

It's still the same three
ingredients that we use:

salt, pepper, and vinegar.

What has changed is the scale

on which we make the sauce.

No matter where you are
in the world,

if you see a bottle
of Tabasco sauce

on the table,
it came from here,

because we only
bottle and label

here on Avery Island, Louisiana,

and then we ship it out
all around the world.

♪

We generally bottle

700,000 to 750,000 bottles
per day,

that's the average

that we export to over
195 countries and territories

around the world

and label in 25
languages and dialects.

♪

Edmund McIlhenny,
the inventor of Tabasco,

from 1868 to his death in 1890,

he made about 350,000
bottles of sauce,

so we make about twice as much
in a single day

as he made in his entire career.

(horn honking)

(peaceful music)

♪

(men conversing in Spanish)

♪

(narrator)
Today, the hot chili pepper

has a firm hold
on a good portion

of the American
culinary culture.

♪

Each year, workers in
the desert pepper fields

of New Mexico harvest
thousands of tons

of hot peppers for market.

♪

(rustling)

♪

(peppers hitting conveyor belt)

The estimated $50 million
business in the state

led the little town
of Hatch to declare itself

"The Chile Capital
of the World."

♪

Darren Gillis is
one of the region's

biggest pepper producers.

♪

(Darren)
On this family farm,

my grandpa started growing chili

and then we've
been carrying it on

all the way down
through the years.

Oh, it took me a little while,

actually, I was
a teenager probably

before I started
really liking it, so.

And as I get older,
the more I like it

and the hotter I like it, so.

(laughing)

It's kind of a taste
that grows on you.

I like green better,

but I eat green and red both

but I prefer
to have green chilies.

It's for the flavor.

(crunching)

(leaves rustling)

The varieties we've grown here

have been produced
in New Mexico,

and the genetics on them
have been converted

to fit this part
of the country a lot better,

to improve the yields

and the size and shape
and heat levels of it.

(tractor engine rumbling)

(leaves rustling)

(Darren)
People are picking,
they pick in buckets,

and then they carry the buckets
up to the conveyer belt

and they dump them,
and when they dump them,

they get paid
a token or a pisha.

(footsteps)

And the people,
at the end of the day,

they count their pishas

and they get paid by the bucket,

so the faster they pick,

the more money they can make,

so it gets pretty
competitive at times.

(men cheering)

(peppers falling
onto conveyer belt)

(man laughing)

(Darren)
A normal year, we do
between 6,000 and 7,000 tons,

and as time goes on,

the demand for Hatch
chilies is growing,

our word is spreading

further and further out,

so we have people calling us

from all over
the United States now

wanting Hatch chili.

♪

(fabric rustling)

(footsteps)

♪

(wire hangers clicking)

(footsteps)

♪

(Dave)
My name is Dave DeWitt

and I'm called
"The Pope of Peppers."

I was resistant
to that for a while,

thinking maybe that Catholics
would get upset with me,

but I found that
that was not true.

When I visited Italy,

the headlines
of the newspapers in Italy:

"Il Papa Del Peperoncino."

So, I'd just go, "Okay,
they want to call me that,

I don't care."

I'm used to it now,
it doesn't matter.

Call me what you want,
but spell my name right.

♪

I lived in Virginia.

They'd never even heard
of chili peppers before.

(bird chirping)

Once I moved to New Mexico,

I was amazed to see

that the people were
eating chili peppers

on a daily basis.

These roasted chilies
are caramelized,

so they have
a higher sugar content,

so the flavor will be excellent.

And they'll also have sort of

a smoky flavor to them
from the flames.

(peppers falling down chute)

I started studying up
on New Mexico food and travel,

and you can't write
about New Mexico food

without writing
about chili peppers,

and the more I
learned about them

and the more I wrote about them,
it became my niche.

So just to prove that I always
carry chili peppers with me,

I'm going to reach
into my pocket

and pull out my car keys.

Attached to my car keys

is this little metal
screw cylinder.

I carry this red
chili powder in here,

it's half filled
with red chili powder,

and if I come to a place where
I need to heat up some food,

I have it right here.

(footsteps)

(man)
So that's your office?

(Dave)
Yeah, I do all my work in here.

And you can see that I have,
you know,

pretty extensive library
of various things.

This was my best-selling book,
"The Whole Chile Pepper Book."

Sold about 120,000 copies
in 10 years, publication.

And, uh, but I don't think
it's my best book.

I think my best book is here.

This is "Precious Cargo:

How Foods From the Americas
Changed the World."

Not only chili peppers
but all different kinds

of New World crops
and how they influenced

the cuisines of the Old World
and changed them radically,

like tomatoes in Italy,
for example.

It was a real change for them.

In the early days,

nobody knew
what the chili peppers were,

and there was no other term
other than "pimento"

to describe them.

And so not only did
chili peppers get confused

with black pepper,

American Indians got confused
with the Indians from India.

Black peppers was expensive.

It was a form of currency
back in the day.

Then, chili peppers came along.

It was less expensive
than black pepper.

And you could get,
you know,

the heat from the chili pepper
and the flavor,

and it becomes not just a spice
but a food as well as a spice.

So when Columbus
got to the New World,

and especially parts of Mexico
and the Caribbean,

this was something brand new.

And the Portuguese
and the Spanish

would take the chilies
that were being grown

and introduce them everywhere
that they went.

And within a hundred years

after he brought chili peppers
to Spain,

they had completely encircled
the world.

When you start adding
all this up,

you get a picture
of how trade and globalism,

if you want to put it that way,

has really changed the cuisines
of these different countries.

And so China
is the largest producer

of fresh chili peppers
in the world.

India is the largest producer

of dried chili peppers
in the world.

(sheep bleating)

(soft music)

(narrator)
The chili made its way to Asia
by the 17th century,

where again it would permeate
the culture

and alter the cuisine.

♪

In fact, so many people
now crave hot peppers worldwide

that it's even overtaken
black pepper spice

in global popularity.

(indistinct chatter)

Here in Rajasthan, India,

the demand for hot chilies
continues to grow each season,

much to the delight
of local producers.

♪

(man)
What's so special
about Rajasthan pepper?

(truck creaks)

(bag thuds)

(birds chirping)

(indistinct chatter)

(peppers rustling)

(soft music)

♪

♪

(energetic music)

(traffic sounds)

♪

(narrator)
To discover just how profoundly
the little hot pepper

has made roads into
the incredibly varied world

of Indian cooking,

we seek the guidance of author

and renowned New Delhi chef
Ruchira Hoon.

♪

(soft music)

(indistinct chatter)

♪

(Ruchira)
So we are at
this 90-year-old market

called Gadodia Market
in New Delhi.

It's the place which sells
dry fruit and chili and spices.

It's one of the largest markets
in Asia.

There were over 200 varieties
of chili peppers in India,

of which 20, 26 are actually
alive and kicking at the moment.

The funny thing is,
the name for the chili pepper

is lal mirchi, or mirch,

which could mean "spice"
and it could mean "heat."

Heat has always been a very
integral part of Indian food.

Ginger, of course,
has been one heat.

There's been the black pepper
or the kaalee mirch.

The chili pepper, however,

because it was introduced
more recently,

has been embraced
more lovingly.

(lighter clicks)

(burner hissing softly)

In Indian cooking, chili pepper
is also looked as a spice.

It'll temper.

That is truly
a very Indian thing to do,

which is that you just heat
a little oil

and put in a little bit of,
you know,

either mustard seed
or cumin seeds

or curry leaves
and some of the chili.

It's to add flavor
to whatever you're adding.

It's that extra bit
that you're doing to that dish.

(utensil scraping pan)

In my cooking,
the pepper aroma is very strong.

I think the taste is--

it speaks more volume in taste
than in the flavor.

(utensil scraping pan)

(utensil scraping bowl)

(spice gently pattering)

It's called laal maas,
which means red meat,

but red from the chilies because
it only uses red chilies,

because it would last
the longest.

And it also acts like
a preservative.

And then whatever meat was found
would be laal maas.

(utensil scraping pan)

I can't think of cooking
without chili peppers.

I mean, I'd like to believe

that it was like a missing
ingredient for Indian cooking,

because when I track back,

or when I do any research
on any part of India,

chili peppers just sort of
are a given in any recipe.

You know, it's the ingredient
that you've got to have.

(utensil rattles)

(soft, quirky music)

♪

(narrator)
Over a century ago,

the hot chili had spread
to every continent,

had influenced every cuisine.

It seemed it had
nowhere left to go.

Nowhere except hotter.

♪

(Wendy)
Back in 2004,

we were contacted
by some of our colleagues

at a research institute
in Assam, India.

And they had let us know

that they had
this very, very hot chili,

and if we wouldn't mind
doing some research on it.

So they sent us some seed.

And we grew it out

and did the scientific
replicated trials,

took the data,

statistically analyzed
that data to get true facts.

(machine whirring)

♪

(narrator)
To measure the rising stakes

in what would become a war
for the hottest pepper,

science uses the Scoville scale,

named for American chemist
Wilbur Scoville.

(liquid sloshing)

The scale he created
is based on the concept

of diluting a hot pepper source
with sugar water

until the sensation of burning
is completely eliminated.

♪

The more dilution required,

the higher the Scoville score
would be.

(contented sigh)

Based on this theory,

a jalapeño pepper scores
a 5,000.

A habanero pepper hits 300,000.

And the pepper spray
used by riot police

tops out at two million
Scoville units.

♪

(Wendy)
So the very first time
I ever tasted

the bhut jolokia,
or the ghost pepper,

I didn't feel the heat
right away.

And I started to feel it
in my throat.

And then it kept building.

Every 30 seconds that went by,

it built more
and more and more

and got hotter and hotter.

When we ran the heat,

this came out just over
one million Scoville heat units.

♪

(Dave)
We were convinced
that it was a fake,

that somebody had rigged
the tests

and that they were fake.

We just couldn't believe
there could be a chili pepper

that was a million
Scoville heat units.

The question was,

how did this pepper
get to India?

I was doing searches
on Google Books,

Encyclopedia of India and
of Eastern and Southern Asia,

published in Madras in 1871.

And the quote that came up was,

"One species was called
devil's pepper,

introduced by Lord Harris
from Trinidad,

is so intensely hot

that the natives
can hardly manage to use it."

And Lord Harris,
he was the British governor

of the territory of Trinidad,

and he was a supporter of
the Royal Botanic station there.

And then,
Lord Harris got a promotion.

Instead of governor
of little old Trinidad,

he became governor
of Madras, India.

And he took those superhot seeds
with him to India,

and that's where
the bhut jolokia came from.

(bright music)

(Wendy)
In 2006,

the Chile Pepper Institute

got the bhut jolokia,
or the ghost pepper,

in the Guinness Book
of World Records

as the hottest chili pepper
on the planet.

We had no idea that we were
opening Pandora's box.

It literally turned
into Pandora's box.

And we, oh, gosh,

fielded thousands of questions
and inquiries

and did hundreds of interviews.

And really just
for probably about five years,

it was a big thing.

(bright music)

♪

(narrator)
The declaration of a world's
record rang out like a shot,

starting a battle that would
turn into a global war

for hot pepper domination.

♪

Among those to rise up
to the challenge

was the tiny island nation
of Trinidad and Tobago,

who believed that
they could not be defeated.

♪

(bag rustling)

(Pathmanathan)
Trinidad peppers have always
enjoyed a reputation,

because they combine
the pungency

with a really beautiful
flavor profile.

So they give the better
of two worlds.

(footsteps, bushes rustling)

(birds chirping)

The peppers in the Caribbean

are referred to
as Capsicum chinense,

which is different from
the chili peppers from Mexico.

There's five domesticated
species of peppers.

I don't think any of them
will be as hot as chinense.

Chinense is the king of hotness.

(laughs)

It is very well possible
that, you know,

we have had some mutations
or selection

for hot peppers in Trinidad.

I think the biggest surprise

was when we collected
the Scorpion.

Farmer said it was
the hottest pepper

that he has seen, ever seen.

And the students used to tell me
that when they cut open

the Scorpion
to take the seeds,

they have to put
both their hands in ice water

in the night to sleep,

because the whole hand burns,
you know?

It was above anything that
was documented at that time.

It was not popular,
nobody knew about it.

But once it was characterized

and it went into the Guinness
Book of Records, you know,

everybody wanted to have--
have it.

(soft, pensive music)

♪

(leaves rustling)

♪

(Sharon)
We've always been doing
pepper sauce at home,

and I was looking
to become an entrepreneur

and start my own business.

♪

The same time when I did,

the Trinidad Scorpion
became named

the hottest pepper in the world.

And it was also the same time
I was starting my business,

so it got really exciting,

'cause people
were now challenging me

to do a hot--a hot pepper sauce,
a Scorpion.

And I'm like, "I'm not sure
there's a market for this pepper

'cause it's so hot."

♪

So it is believed
that this pepper

is a strain
of the pimento pepper,

which is more
of a seasoning pepper,

it's not--it's not hot.

And the 7 Pot pepper,

which is extremely hot
but flavorless.

(bushes rustling)

We made a first batch
and we launched it,

and to this day it's
our number one selling product.

So what it told me

is that there is
a huge market out there

and fan base for people
who really like hot peppers.

(guitar music)

(narrator)
By the beginning of the 2000s,

U.S.-based horticulturists
had begun to tinker

with the genetics
of the weapons-grade chilies

coming from the Caribbean.

(amplifier tuning)

Among them, Troy Primeaux,

whose work would become
the focus

of a war within the war
for the world's hottest pepper.

(guitar music)

(Troy)
My true love is music.

The peppers started out
as a consolation prize

for having to hang up
my rock and roll boots.

♪

(blues music)

The Cajun people
believe in peppers.

Everybody uses cayenne pepper
in their dishes,

their rice and gravy,
their gumbos, their étouffée.

♪

Back then,
there were a couple of forums,

like the Hot Pepper Forum.

I was purchasing seeds
and growing all these varieties,

you know, like, at one time
I had 76 different varieties.

(pensive music)

♪

Traditional genetics, breeding,

it's not GMO,

but you're definitely
creating something.

Because a pepper plant
has both sex,

it will self-pollinate,

unless a bumblebee
or an insect comes first.

And that's called
cross-pollination.

So we're simulating that effect.

♪

I mean, it's kind of like
assisted pepper love,

assistant pepper sex.

I did this in 2005.

This plant is a cross
of the Naga Morich,

which is a precursor
to the ghost chili,

everybody knows what the ghost--
bhut jolokia is.

And then you have
the 7 Pot pepper from Trinidad,

which is rumored to heat
seven pots of stew.

When I cross-bred the two,

yeah, it was different,

and it--it's just like
it's magical

because you've created something

that's different
than either parent,

and it's unique.

♪

Visual, just warty as hell.

Round.

Big stinger sticking out of it.

This is characteristic
of my pepper,

most than anything.

With 1.5 million Scovilles,

but when somebody wants
to pop one of these

in their mouth,
I typically say, "Wait."

(laughs)

"Wait a little while
and think about it," you know?

But this,
and I have to explain,

this is like eating
300 jalapeños at one time.

That usually--

that's a deal-breaker
for most people right there.

(utensil scraping dish)

Now, you have a namesake,

a pepper
that's gonna outlive me,

but other people
are growing it,

other people are using it
in their products.

The minute
the seed leaves the garden

and leaves your house,
all bets are off.

And then I knew
a matter of time,

somebody was gonna come around
and beat me.

(seeds softly rattling)

(soft, bright music)

♪

(man)
How many varieties
are you growing?

(Ed)
I believe it's 156 in here,

but I've been told I'm wrong.

(laughs)

Could be more.

♪

(narrator)
Meanwhile, in South Carolina,

another shot
was about to be fired

in the battle
of the chiliheads.

(Ed)
Welcome to the jungle, baby.

(chuckles)

♪

They're just so beautiful.

♪

It's a paternal relationship.

♪

Uh, I'm their dad.

♪

And I love watching
my children grow.

♪

The way peppers affect me
has more to do with my past.

I'm an addict, okay?

I started using drugs
and alcohol at a very young age.

I also got into breeding
a certain substance that, uh,

really wasn't legal at the time,

so we're gonna leave it at that,

but, uh, that really got me
into plant genetics.

And peppers just added
to the mix for me.

So, literally what I do
is I take fine paintbrushes

and I take the pollen
out of one flower

and transfer it over,

and do it back and forth,
back and forth, back and forth.

Most of the time
it doesn't work,

but when it does work,
it's magic.

A friend of mine
that I knew at work

was from the island
of Saint Vincent.

She went home for the holidays

and brought back a pepper.

I think it was more
towards a 7 Pot

or maybe a 7 Pot habanero cross.

And I bred that
with nine other peppers,

one of 'em being a Naga
that I got from a doctor

who's from Pakistan.

And those two
produced the Reaper.

(insects chirring)

(birds calling)

The Reaper is bright red,
it's got wrinkles all over it,

with a tail sticking out of it.

(bright music)

"Congratulations, Edgar,

you've been awarded
the Guinness World Record

for the hottest thing
in the world,

Smokin' Ed's Carolina Reaper."

♪

We literally got
so many orders

that we were sold out
in like five days.

I couldn't keep up
with production.

I think we had to refund
something like 24,000 orders

over a three-month period
'cause we just couldn't keep up.

I was not prepared
for the record

and I was not prepared
for the notoriety

that it would give me.

♪

(Troy)
I saw it and it looked
just like my pepper.

In my soul,
there was no pepper

with that long stinger
that looked like that out there.

People rename peppers
these days,

they'd done it then,

there's controversy
with the Primo.

The first time I heard
about Troy Primeaux

was right after that, uh,

right after that announcement.

There was a controversy.

Oh, is this a Primo,
is it a Reaper?

And I got involved in the drama
for a little bit, uh,

but I didn't see
the point in it.

(Troy)
We've had the Reaper
and the Primo

tested at Las Cruces Bio Labs,

and they're nearly identical,

so much so
that the manager said

in all the peppers he's tested
in the industry,

in his opinion,
they're the same.

(soft, pensive music)

(Ed)
No one's come close
to beating the Reaper yet.

I don't try to imitate
anybody else out there.

I saw a market, I made a market,
and I'm leading that market.

(peppers clattering)

There's just people
who make money

actually keeping
that controversy going.

♪

(Troy)
In time, uh, the community,

the pepper community,

it was kind of like Ed and I
were having a divorce

and the kids didn't want to hear
the parents fight.

It wasn't good for business.

Um, I backed off.

And what's happened
since I backed off,

I--I sell hot sauce
to Reaper fans

as well as Primo fans.

(traffic whirring)

I'm gonna be the empire
of the superhot probably.

Humans are crazy, you know?

We'll eat the silliest things
just because we're humans.

They're just chasing
a dragon too.

Okay, someone get me a lawyer
and a last will.

(indistinct chatter)

Oh my God.

(announcer)
Three, two, one.

Eat!

(indistinct chatter, cheering)

(narrator)
For now, the Carolina Reaper

still holds the crown
for the world's hottest pepper.

(indistinct announcements)

And an army of chiliheads
await the next contender.

(announcer)
Please give these guys
a big Fort Mill cheer.

(Dave)
Everybody wants
the biggest, the best,

the hottest,
the ultimate.

I just think that we have
an unstoppable force here.

(soft, pensive music)

Foods from the Americas
changed the world,

but cuisines
are all about change,

and they're still evolving.

All over the world
cuisines are evolving.

♪

(Katherine)
At the end of the day,
they are seeds,

but they tell a story.

They tell a story of human
engagements, human travel.

And so,
through doing things like that,

they're maintaining
a lot of the biodiversity

and that plasticity
of the chili pepper genetics,

allowing for it
to continue to surprise us

in so many different ways.

(bright music)

(indistinct chatter)

♪

(Ivette)
Sometimes I wonder
if we are in control

or if maybe the plants
are in control.

I think chilies are using us,
you know,

to--to help them
spread their genes

and pollinate and keep working
with their genes.

Um, I think, really,
we're just puppets of chilies

trying to, you know,
get us more addicted to them,

and that's what's going on.

(laughing)

♪

(Troy)
Maybe the chili knew all along

that humans would develop
a liking for it,

and that that was the goal.

It's got the last laugh.

I mean, it's all over the place.

(utensil hitting bowl)

(narrator)
Did the pepper choose us?

Or did we create the hot chili
in our own image,

excessive and without limits?

(cheering, applause)

Does the chili pepper
hold the key

to our own inner duality,

the line between pleasure
and pain?

One thing is certain,

the chili pepper will continue
to inspire great passion,

just like a forbidden fruit.

(leaves rustling)

(Troy)
This Pot's special,

definitely Adam's apple,
forbidden fruit.

Were we supposed to eat it?

(man)
Well, you tell me.

(Troy)
You might have to ask it.

(insects chirring)

(bright music)

♪

(bright music)