My father, Hristo Rodinov, created his own variety of hot pepper. We named it "Bulgarian Sense". Now we're waiting for the lab results to find out just how hot it is, Slavena Rodinova told Agri.BG.
The hot pepper is a cross between "Trinidad Moruga Scorpion" – the hottest pepper up until 2013 – and Red "Habanero". The result is a glossy, red and very hot Bulgarian pepper, native to the village of Strashimirovo near Varna.
It took Hristo Rodinov 5–6 years to stabilise the variety. The pepper has to come out identical year after year, which is what actually takes so much time.
"The idea of doing something a bit different was born out of pure curiosity. In the beginning I started crossing different varieties to see what would come out. That's how this pepper came to be," Hristo Rodinov himself told BNR.
It turns out that naming the hot pepper was no easy task either.
"We ran a challenge called 'Hot Overdose' to choose a name for it. We had quite a few suggestions. My family and I narrowed it down to the three best, and at a party on 14 September all the guests voted. They went for the Bulgarian option, and our hot pepper is called 'Bulgarian Sense'," Slavena explains.
"Bulgarian Sense" belongs to a family of hot peppers that comes from the Caribbean region. They are very hot and, when cut open, they smell of citrus. The next step for the Rodinov family is a patent.
"This will be the hottest Bulgarian pepper. We expect its heat to be somewhere between 100,000 and 500,000 Scoville Heat Units (SHU). By comparison, the most widespread Bulgarian hot pepper in the world – the "Bulgarian Carrot" – is 20,000 SHU," adds its creator.
But the farmer from the Varna region doesn't stop there. He has even taken to making his own peat.
You can read the full article here.