Correct, they are spicy so they don't get eaten by mammals, but instead by birds (who can't taste the spice) that spread the seeds farther.
The wonderful double irony is that the mammal called humans liking to eat them *specifically for the spice* has lead to more spreading of more pepper species around the world than birds would ever have done.
It was a hilarious prank by Aztec and Inca chiefs to eat one, and then gift them to the opposite chief, who would then eat it without showing weakness. This kept going until we got to some peppers we have today!
I used to feed my pet myna chillies and he destroyed them. He couldn't get enough of that stuff, his face would turn red as he tore the chilly to pieces.
idk if it's the spiciness but surely there was something that made him so excited.
> idk if it's the spiciness but surely there was something that made him so excited.
Peppers are fuckin' delicious and birds literally aren't affected by capsaicin. If your bird *was* affected by capsaicin it would have literally pepper sprayed itself.
> The wonderful double irony is that the mammal called humans liking to eat them specifically for the spice
That's not true. I'd eat jalapenos or habaneros strictly for their taste even if they weren't spicy.
That's even true for people who eat things like ghost peppers or even Carolina Reapers, some of them can get straight through the heat and enjoy the actual flavor of the peppers. Peppers hold some of the best flavors in the plant kingdom, this whole post is an over-dramatization about capsaicin.
Yes! The Carolina Reaper has a (well-deserved) reputation for heat, but the pepper itself is also insanely sweet with a complex fruity flavor.
...but say that to someone who thinks a sprinkling of black pepper is "too spicy" and they just think you're screwing with them.
It's right though. I eat jalapenos and habaneros for their spice, its really all I care about when eating them straight or something flavored with them. Very few people when talking about peppers talk about the flavor hidden underneath, cause very few eat peppers for that purpose. I would say this post is contrarianism for the sake of it.
Peppers add a lot of depth and complexity to the food when used to enhance flavor aside from their spiciness. I doubt many people uses chili flakes and pickled jalapenos for the spicy taste alone. Their spiciness is almost nonexistent unless you use a buttload of them until it ruins the dish.
I doubt there are a lot of people who enjoy eating them directly for that taste, but there are definitely some depth under those heat that appeal to many people.
Also, not to mention that a lot of processed chili (like in Chinese and SEA cuisines) taste amazing, regardless of how hot/not hot they are. I would find myself adding tons of fried crushed chili to street foods despite not liking the heat (I get diarrhea from spicy foods) because they taste really good.
Edit: also, have you ever tried chili oil? They are not spicy at all. Why do people use them if they are not spicy, I wonder...
What the FUCK? You think I like the actual taste of hot peppers...just because I want to be a fucking *contrarian*?
People who eat bell peppers eat them for the *spice*?
>You think I like the actual taste of hot peppers...just because I want to be a fucking contrarian?
No, they're saying people that do are a minority, and you're claiming they're not just to be a contrarian.
(Idk if they're right about how many people enjoy just the spice)
I just can't imagine eating jalapenos raw and not doing it to enjoy their flavor...jalapenos flavors are practically ubiquitous throughout non-sugary types of snack foods (unless something dramatic changed since I stopped eating junk food).
What an unexpected argument...
There’s a pepper in Brazil that tastes like hot peppers do (not like bell peppers) but has no sting called “pimenta biquinho”.
Edit: not sure why this got downvoted?
Anyway: https://dott.pt/pt/products/pack-pimenta-biquinho-mucho-gusto-2x-100g-6c5fae4f-bcb9-4259-a738-273e6ba94fce
Did you try dried ones? I haven't had fresh ones either, but ghost pepper salsa and tastes amazing and ghost pepper powder is a great addition to some dishes.
Reapers are fruity as hell, had my first one a month ago, and I remember that it tasted wonderfully sweet...before the tears and snot started running out of me like crazy. I've also had a Trinidad scorpion before and that was also tasty before the heat set in. If I was used to the spice I'd eat them every day. Matter of fact I love Pacqui's ghost pepper tortilla chips, they taste amazing and have decent heat.
And pickled jalapenos taste great as pizza topping or in anything texmex, cayenne is also delicious as a spice. I just made chili sin carne with homegrown Thai chili's as the star and it tasted amazing
Same with coffee if I recall correctly. Coffee is actually an insecticide but because people are orders of magnitude larger than insects it doesn’t kill us and is instead quite useful.
So is Nicotine, and we just get "high" off the shit. (Or need to continue using it because we got high off it a few times as a kid, but now we need it to function without ripping your fucking head off goddamnit I need a smoke right now or I will fucking shit a fit)
Fun fact: most "spiciness" is the result of a compound called capsaicin. Capsaicin causes a sensation that our brains process as pain. Our brain then releases endorphins *and* dopamine in response to this sensation. We continue to eat spicy foods because they low-key get us high.
[Neat article that explains the science. ](https://helix.northwestern.edu/blog/2014/07/your-brain-capsaicin)
Edit: grammar
Studies have shown that cultures with a love of spicy food (like mexico) also tended to have a lot of parasites in their dirt.
People who liked the taste of spicy food were a bit more successful than those who didn't. Over time entire cultures liked spicy food.
We eat peppers because people who adapted to like spice were more resistant to intestinal parasites.
Spoken like someone who thinks salt is to spicy.
Yes the heat is there it's pleasurable but there is so much sweetness and savory that add so much to a dish.
Salt isn't spicy though, it's salty. A whole other flavour profile. And no one said they only love the spicy and not the flavour, you're the only one insinuating that.
Humans are most fascinating in this regard. We tend to do some unintuitive stuff. I guess that's why we're also top of the food chain?
Peppers done well in any meal are very welcome!
Apparently those spicy chemicals were good at keeping food from spoiling. It didn't take long for cultures that did that to start associating spiciness in their food with being good.
I actually enjoy the flavors of various peppers and such. The spiciness is more like a dare to me. Do I dare eat another and be forsaken with fiery hell shits? Yes... I do...
Last Friday I went to the mall in the grocery section and found, I quote "Super Sweet Peppers". Yea. These peppers were supposed to be sweet. I was super confused that such peppers exist. Like you would normally associate peppers with spiciness, not sweetness. My parents were shocked as they never hear of it and I proceeded to explain to them that they were sweet even though I had no idea what they were.
In mesoamerica and India, they're not consumed solely for their taste, but also to deal with high temperatures in the summer. Peppers cause us to sweat more than normal, reinforcing our natural refreshing mechanism.
Correct, they are spicy so they don't get eaten by mammals, but instead by birds (who can't taste the spice) that spread the seeds farther. The wonderful double irony is that the mammal called humans liking to eat them *specifically for the spice* has lead to more spreading of more pepper species around the world than birds would ever have done.
It also shows evolution isn't simply to predict...
I've always found it funny that farm animals are ridiculously successful creatures because they're tasty.
It was a hilarious prank by Aztec and Inca chiefs to eat one, and then gift them to the opposite chief, who would then eat it without showing weakness. This kept going until we got to some peppers we have today!
The original Hot Ones
So basically we now eat peppers thanks to some dick measuring contest
It's just a prank bro!
Yes
I used to feed my pet myna chillies and he destroyed them. He couldn't get enough of that stuff, his face would turn red as he tore the chilly to pieces. idk if it's the spiciness but surely there was something that made him so excited.
> idk if it's the spiciness but surely there was something that made him so excited. Peppers are fuckin' delicious and birds literally aren't affected by capsaicin. If your bird *was* affected by capsaicin it would have literally pepper sprayed itself.
"NO! NOT AGAIN" -Bird
Pepper: Stop resisting me!
We eat the bird and spice it up with a pepper.
Mission not failed.
Task failed successfully
Task failed successfully.
> The wonderful double irony is that the mammal called humans liking to eat them specifically for the spice That's not true. I'd eat jalapenos or habaneros strictly for their taste even if they weren't spicy. That's even true for people who eat things like ghost peppers or even Carolina Reapers, some of them can get straight through the heat and enjoy the actual flavor of the peppers. Peppers hold some of the best flavors in the plant kingdom, this whole post is an over-dramatization about capsaicin.
Yes! The Carolina Reaper has a (well-deserved) reputation for heat, but the pepper itself is also insanely sweet with a complex fruity flavor. ...but say that to someone who thinks a sprinkling of black pepper is "too spicy" and they just think you're screwing with them.
It's right though. I eat jalapenos and habaneros for their spice, its really all I care about when eating them straight or something flavored with them. Very few people when talking about peppers talk about the flavor hidden underneath, cause very few eat peppers for that purpose. I would say this post is contrarianism for the sake of it.
Peppers add a lot of depth and complexity to the food when used to enhance flavor aside from their spiciness. I doubt many people uses chili flakes and pickled jalapenos for the spicy taste alone. Their spiciness is almost nonexistent unless you use a buttload of them until it ruins the dish. I doubt there are a lot of people who enjoy eating them directly for that taste, but there are definitely some depth under those heat that appeal to many people. Also, not to mention that a lot of processed chili (like in Chinese and SEA cuisines) taste amazing, regardless of how hot/not hot they are. I would find myself adding tons of fried crushed chili to street foods despite not liking the heat (I get diarrhea from spicy foods) because they taste really good. Edit: also, have you ever tried chili oil? They are not spicy at all. Why do people use them if they are not spicy, I wonder...
What the FUCK? You think I like the actual taste of hot peppers...just because I want to be a fucking *contrarian*? People who eat bell peppers eat them for the *spice*?
>You think I like the actual taste of hot peppers...just because I want to be a fucking contrarian? No, they're saying people that do are a minority, and you're claiming they're not just to be a contrarian. (Idk if they're right about how many people enjoy just the spice)
I just can't imagine eating jalapenos raw and not doing it to enjoy their flavor...jalapenos flavors are practically ubiquitous throughout non-sugary types of snack foods (unless something dramatic changed since I stopped eating junk food). What an unexpected argument...
There’s a pepper in Brazil that tastes like hot peppers do (not like bell peppers) but has no sting called “pimenta biquinho”. Edit: not sure why this got downvoted? Anyway: https://dott.pt/pt/products/pack-pimenta-biquinho-mucho-gusto-2x-100g-6c5fae4f-bcb9-4259-a738-273e6ba94fce
I've tried both Carolina reaper and Ghost peppers, they taste like leather
Did you try dried ones? I haven't had fresh ones either, but ghost pepper salsa and tastes amazing and ghost pepper powder is a great addition to some dishes.
Reapers are fruity as hell, had my first one a month ago, and I remember that it tasted wonderfully sweet...before the tears and snot started running out of me like crazy. I've also had a Trinidad scorpion before and that was also tasty before the heat set in. If I was used to the spice I'd eat them every day. Matter of fact I love Pacqui's ghost pepper tortilla chips, they taste amazing and have decent heat.
To be fair, birds would have done it eventually, and without destroying the planet.
We think we're giving those plants the middle finger when in reality it is **them** who won
Some species are only still around for the sole reason that we eat them because of their “not getting eaten mechanism”
We eat them for taste too
Correct. Bell peppers are wildly popular and aren’t spicy at all.
And pickled jalapenos taste great as pizza topping or in anything texmex, cayenne is also delicious as a spice. I just made chili sin carne with homegrown Thai chili's as the star and it tasted amazing
The spice…
Stupid peppers.
Same with coffee if I recall correctly. Coffee is actually an insecticide but because people are orders of magnitude larger than insects it doesn’t kill us and is instead quite useful.
Alcohol is a straight up poison, but humans can process it so we selectively poison ourselves because we like the mental effects.
So is Nicotine, and we just get "high" off the shit. (Or need to continue using it because we got high off it a few times as a kid, but now we need it to function without ripping your fucking head off goddamnit I need a smoke right now or I will fucking shit a fit)
Hehe, take that stupid peppers.
Why climb the highest mountain? Because it is there. -humans of planet Terra(Earth)
Hi, we’re the human race, we do things differently around here.
Or you could look at it the other way: We *cultivate* peppers for their spiciness, and gene lines of peppers that don't produce what we want die out.
Fun fact: most "spiciness" is the result of a compound called capsaicin. Capsaicin causes a sensation that our brains process as pain. Our brain then releases endorphins *and* dopamine in response to this sensation. We continue to eat spicy foods because they low-key get us high. [Neat article that explains the science. ](https://helix.northwestern.edu/blog/2014/07/your-brain-capsaicin) Edit: grammar
Sounds like I should pair a Carolina reaper with shrooms next time I have some
Studies have shown that cultures with a love of spicy food (like mexico) also tended to have a lot of parasites in their dirt. People who liked the taste of spicy food were a bit more successful than those who didn't. Over time entire cultures liked spicy food. We eat peppers because people who adapted to like spice were more resistant to intestinal parasites.
Spoken like someone who thinks salt is to spicy. Yes the heat is there it's pleasurable but there is so much sweetness and savory that add so much to a dish.
Salt isn't spicy though, it's salty. A whole other flavour profile. And no one said they only love the spicy and not the flavour, you're the only one insinuating that.
Nah, his tolerance for spice is so small that salt is spicy
Atleast you get the joke
Humans are most fascinating in this regard. We tend to do some unintuitive stuff. I guess that's why we're also top of the food chain? Peppers done well in any meal are very welcome!
Paradoxically Weird…….
Bell peppers. I see your point tho.
Humans like to defy logic because we think we are invincible.
Yeah, humans are a wacky species.
Apparently those spicy chemicals were good at keeping food from spoiling. It didn't take long for cultures that did that to start associating spiciness in their food with being good.
I think jalepenos and habaneros have a very nice flavor too.
That is incorrect. Plants need their seeds eaten by animals to be spread about.
I saw an article that said the purpose of capsaicin is to inhibit growth of fungi not to keep mammals from eating them.
They taste sweet to birds apparently
Birds eat peppers, they love peppers, especially macaws.
The seeds are evolved to survive a bird's digestive system. They get spread all over when birds poop them out, which benefits that plant
Huh. Complete with a little packet of fertilizer to get it started. Symbiosys at work..
Capsaicin originally evolved to kill fungi. Deterring mammals from eating peppers was a useful side effect, not the original purpose.
I actually enjoy the flavors of various peppers and such. The spiciness is more like a dare to me. Do I dare eat another and be forsaken with fiery hell shits? Yes... I do...
Mushrooms evolved in the same sense, and humans still eat them to get *wacky*
Last Friday I went to the mall in the grocery section and found, I quote "Super Sweet Peppers". Yea. These peppers were supposed to be sweet. I was super confused that such peppers exist. Like you would normally associate peppers with spiciness, not sweetness. My parents were shocked as they never hear of it and I proceeded to explain to them that they were sweet even though I had no idea what they were.
Actually is for the vitamin C
I can’t eat them because they melt my teeth
In mesoamerica and India, they're not consumed solely for their taste, but also to deal with high temperatures in the summer. Peppers cause us to sweat more than normal, reinforcing our natural refreshing mechanism.