Red hot

New Delhi, May 20: A chilly whose antecedents are in the Northeast has made its way to jars in kitchens across the United Kingdom and excited gourmets with the stomach for a fiery experience.

Grown abundantly in parts of the Northeast and Bangladesh, the bhut jolokia can make you spew fire, and not just from your mouth. Michael and Joy Michaud, a British couple from West Dorset, have reinvented the bhut jolokia — certified by the Guinness Book of World Records as the fieriest in the world — and named it the Dorset Naga pepper.

The small, rotund chilly is now setting tongues on fire not only in Europe, but also Australia and New Zealand.

The Michauds are convinced that Dorset Naga pepper is a “hot” business proposition.

The home-grown variety is especially popular with Bangladeshis settled in the United Kingdom, who have a strong preference for the hot stuff. Measured at the New Mexico State University in the USA, the potent chilli was found to score over 1 million Scoville Heat Units.

The Michauds first spotted seeds of the bhut jolokia at a Pakistani store. But they credit scientists at Tezpur, in Assam, with drawing attention to it as the hottest chilli in the race. “We are just a bunch of guys who got lucky. We take some ownership, but not all,” Michael said.

Michael told The Telegraph from his home, overlooking the English Channel, that he receives orders from across the globe and sends consignment by post. “My primary and faithful clientele, though, remain Bangladeshis, who number nearly 60,000 in the UK. They make pastes and sauces out of the chilli,” he said.

“It sells pretty well,” Michael summed up modestly, adding that purchasers usually buy in bulk. The proud cultivator is amazed that Indians have not exploited the business potential of the spice to the fullest. Frontal Agritech, an Indian firm, markets the spice as dried pods and powdered chilli.

Dorset Naga pepper gained overnight fame after a local newspaper in “England’s most beautiful county” carried it to 10,000 homes.

Extensively cultivated in Assam, Nagaland and Manipur, the pepper is called by different names in different areas of the Northeast. “It is known as Naga jolokia, Nagahari, bhut jolokia, bih jolokia or borbih jolokia,” Michael said, throwing light on the varied nomenclatures.