HOT HISTORY
Serrano. Guajillo. Manzano. For every palate, a chilli: from the mild crunch of a banana pepper to the peppery kick of the cayenne, from the sweetness of friggitelli to the prickling heat of the birdseye. Across almost every country and culture, chilli proliferates – by some estimates, there are more than 50,000 Capsicum cultivars grown worldwide. It inspires devotion, obsession and for some, a never-ending quest for an ever-hotter fix. But where did it all begin?
In what’s now known as Bolivia and Mexico, the Indigenous people first foraged chillies where they grew in the wild. As early
