Melba's Jammin' wrote:

Is there any chance that your taste has changed? I've always understood
the jalapeño to be a not-very-hot pepper.

It certainly has changed but is not dead. This all started when I
learned that my blood pressure was too high. One of the home
remedies/internet factoids was that capsicum reduces blood pressure.

Up to that time, I abhorred hot food and considered it uncivilized and
fit only for howling savages.

Well, after a concerted effort to modify my palate, it now takes a
jabenero to really challenge me. However, a proper jalapeno still has
that nice warm mouth feel and is not confused with the dudds I am
referring to. They simply have no heat.

Last year we harvested from about now till frost and nothing changed.
Most of them were duds and a very few were hot. We had to add a few
jabeneros to each jar of pickled jalapenos to get a reasonably hot batch.

None of this had any effect on my blood pressure BTW but it has expanded
my horizons.

js

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