However I had some that I could eat green and they weren’t that hot. I let some get red and chomped down. The result was one of my “oh gawd hot pepper this happened stories”.
I think part of it may not them actually getting hotter. If you took a green one and a red one and ground them down to nearly the molecular level then tasted the juice they might be of similiar heat levels.
However, I think when they have reached the red state (it takes a good while from green) more of the hot juices that were locked up in the seeds or various tissues are have leached out into the liquids in the pepper. So, when you eat it they are much easier released into the mouth with minimal chewing.
Your nitpick is about 500 years too late, they’ve been called peppers since Columbus called them that. That’s their English name now. You wouldn’t nitpick that an avocado is actually called an ahuácatl, would you?
They can be like this right off of the bush. One will be mild as can be and the one growing an inch away will set your mouth on fire.
I concur. Even if they aren’t hotter I think they taste so much better than the green ones. We have a friend who went into organic farming a few years ago (went to the significant trouble of getting certified). After awhile he figure out that was more trouble than it was worth (not enough hippies around here I guess). So he backed off a little and now just sells his stuff as pesticide free (just uses fertilizer I suppose). Anyway, I bought from him 15 pounds of green Jalapenos and 5 pounds of the red (it was the last he had) from him for a buck a pound. I like growing peppers but next year I’m getting a couple dozen pounds of red ones from him! Cheaper and easier for me and he makes some money.
I’m kinda like the OP a year or two back when I discoved red ones. Red Jalapenos?! Why wasn’t I informed?! All those wasted years…
All those wasted years… 