How Hot is Hot?

Who would have thought there was a Chile Pepper Institute? I sure never would have guessed. The Chile Pepper Institute "is a non-profit, science-based organization dedicated to everything chile pepper. It conducts research on disease resistance, higher yield and better flavor of the crop. It also fields hundreds of questions a week from growers, producers, researchers and home gardeners" (Joshi 1). Each year the Chile Pepper Institute declares a new worlds hottest pepper. In 2007, the Guiness Book of World Records certified the Bhut Jolokia as the hottest pepper. However, in February the Moruga Scorpion was declared the new hottest pepper. In order to determine the world's hottest pepper, a mathematical formula is used containing, Scoville heat units (SHU). The Moruga Scorpion received a score of 2 million SHU. The Moruga Scorpion has been used in everything from salsa to brownie mixes but it is recommended to eat in very small servings. 

I enjoyed reading this article because it was new and interesting to me. I had never heard of anything like a Chile Pepper Institute but it definitely sounds like a fun job to have. The author, Monika Joshi used mainly logos in her article. She described how SHU's work and kept straight to the facts. She included a little pathos when she interviewed people who had sampled the Moruga Scorpion, "the heat builds after the initial bite, resulting in an all-over-the-mouth-and-throat burn that lasts at least eight minutes" (John Hard, owner of Chile Pepper Institute).


Chile Pepper Institute Studies What's Hot by Monika Joshi
http://yourlife.usatoday.com/fitness-food/story/2012-03-11/Chile-Pepper-Institute-studies-whats-hot/53490214/1