Even if you’re not a big fan of hot chile peppers, these caramels from M. Cacao are hot stuff.
Chef Delphin Gomes: Michael collaborates with Chef Delphin Gomes, a French pastry master, and Michael Nichols, the company founder, to develop chocolate creations that never fail to dazzle.
For this box of spicy caramel enrobed in the finest chocolate, the chocolatiers took their chocolate covered caramels and added just enough pulverized chile pepper to provide great chile flavor without burning the tongue numb.
They are still hot, we hasten to add, but chile connoisseurs can actually taste the different fruit flavors* of each type of chile.
Plus, you can customize your box of caramels to the particular level of heat you want, whether all mild, medium, or hot, or a combination.
We’ll get to them in a moment, but first:
> The history of chiles.
> The different types of chiles: a photo glossary.
> The Scoville scale that establishes heat level—SHU, for Scoville Heat Units.
> Below: Chile vs. chili vs. chilli and chiles vs. peppers, and why The Nibble uses “chiles” instead of “peppers.”
> Below: The difference between fruits and vegetables.
CARAMEL + CHILE ENROBED IN CHOCOLATE:
TAKE YOUR PICK
Before we describe each of the chiles to you, we don’t want to bury the shopping information.
There are eight different types of chile caramels, and M. Cacao offers their caramels 8-piece and 16-piece boxes.
You can choose a mixed box of everything, a box of the lower-heat chiles only, or a box of the high-heat chiles only.
And if it all becomes too much for you, try a scoop of ice cream. The dairy is a great help in neutralizing the capsaicinoids, the chemical compounds that give chile peppers their spicy flavor and burn.
> Get your chile caramels from M. Cacao here and prepare to sizzle.
INTRODUCING THE 8 CARAMEL CHILES
Note that the heat level of chiles varies depending on subspecies, terroir, and growing conditions.
1. Green Hatch Chile
Mild Hatch chiles measure from 1,000–2,500 SHU, similar to Anaheim chiles. They deliver an earthy, smoky, rich flavor to the caramel (photo #3).
2. Red Hatch Chile
Red Hatch chiles are the ripened version of the green chiles, with similar heat. In addition to the earthy and smoky flavors, ripeness adds a buttery quality (photo #4).
3. Serrano Tampiqueño Chile
Serrano Tampiqueño chiles, a variety of serrano, has medium-high heat—typically between 10,000 and 23,000 SHU. They are hotter than jalapeños but milder than Thai chiles or habaneros (photo #5).
Known for their bright, fresh flavor, they have a delayed-fuse heat, allowing their flavor notes to unfold first.
4. Scotch Bonnet Chile
Scotch Bonnet chiles typically range between 100,000 and 350,000 SHUs. This places them in the same heat range as habaneros, but with a slightly sweeter and fruitier flavor (photo #6).
Its complex profile including flavors of tomato and apple are appreciated by chile lovers.
5. Habanero Chile
The bright fruity, citrus notes that are beloved in habaneros bite back with ripping heat.
Habanero chiles typically range between 100,000 and 350,000 SHU (photo #7).
6. Ghost Chile
Previously ranked as the the world’s hottest† chile pepper, these caramels are prepared in such a way that you’ll enjoy the smoky, deeply peppery notes of the chile before the slow burning heat rises up to haunt you (photo #8).
7. Scorpion Chile
Scorpion chiles are aggressively hot, with a long-lasting, lingering heat signature. The flavors you’ll experience before the heat gets you are citrusy, sweet, and even floral (photo #9).
8. Carolina Reaper Chile
Another opportunity for “death by chocolate,” the Carolina Reaper chile caramel is a delicious way to tempt fate. Even if you like it hot, start with a small nibble from one corner (photo #10).
WHY CHILES ARE CALLED PEPPERS
The first chiles were brought to Spain in 1493 by Diego Álvarez Chanca, a physician on Columbus’ second voyage to the West Indies. He first wrote about their medicinal effects in 1494.
From Europe, chiles spread rapidly to India, China, and Japan. In Europe, they first were grown in the monastery gardens of Spain and Portugal as botanical curiosities.
The monks experimented with their culinary potential and discovered that their pungency offered an inexpensive substitute for black peppercorns, which were so costly in Europe that they were used as legal currency in some countries.
“Chile pepper” is a misnomer, and the term “pepper” is not used in Latin America where chiles originated.
The etymology:
The word chile (also spelled chili or chilli) originates from the Nahuatl (Aztec) word chīlli.
Spanish colonizers adopted the word from Nahuatl, spelling it chile.
When he word spread globally, variations in spelling appeared.
Chile used in Mexico, the southwestern U.S., and some Spanish-speaking countries.
Chili is common across the U.S., especially when referring to foods like chili powder and chili con carne.
Chilli is the spelling used in the U.K., British territories, and India (a former British territory).
How did we get from “chile” to “pepper?”
The first European to come across hot chiles was Christopher Columbus, when he landed in the Caribbean. He called them “pimientos” (the Spanish word for black pepper) because of their fiery similarity to black peppercorns with which he was familiar.
He brought the “peppers” back to Europe and chiles have been mis-named peppers ever since. But the two aren’t related at the order and family levels of botanical classification.
THE NIBBLE uses the authentic word, “chile,” and for elucidation for everyone who grew up with “pepper,” we often use “chile pepper.” But beyond peppercorns, never use “pepper,” except in the case of bell peppers, which have no heat.
Why not call bells pepper, too? Because most peopled don’t realize that bell peppers, a mild vegetable, are related to hot chiles.
THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CHILES & PEPPER
Chiles
Chiles are from the order Solanales, family Solanaceae (the nightshades), genus Capsicum
Domesticated chiles are divided into five species: Capsicum annuum, Capsicum baccatum, Capsicum chinense, Capsicum frutescens, and Capsicum pubescens.
Most of the chiles eaten in the U.S. are Capsicum annuum (bell pepper and jalapeño, e.g.), Capsicum chinense (Carolina reaper, ghost (bhut jolokia), habanero and Scotch bonnet, e.g.), and Capsicum frutescens (bird’s eye and tabasco, e.g.).
The heat in chiles comes from the chemical compound capsaicin.
Chiles originated in South and Central America.
Its edible nightshade family relatives include eggplants, potatoes, and tomatoes.
Black Pepper
Black peppercorns are from the order Piperales, family Piperaceae, genus and species Piper nigrum (photo #11).
Piper nigrum includes black, white, and green peppercorns. Pink pepper is not a peppercorn—it is the berry of a tree.
You may come across other species, most commonly Piper longum, the long pepper, and Piper cubeba, cubeb or tailed pepper.
The pepper originated on the Malabar Coast of India, the southwestern coast.
The heat black pepper comes from the chemical compound piperine.
To clear up another item of confusion, there is:
Szechuan (Sichuan) Pepper
Szechuan (Sichuan) pepper is neither pepper nor chile (photo #12). It comes from the dried husks of berries from trees in the Zanthoxylum genus of deciduous and evergreen trees, and belongs specifically to the citrus family of trees.
Its order is Sapindales, family Rutaceae (the citrus family), genus Zanthoxylum, and the genus and species Zanthoxylum simulans.
The Japanese pepper (sansho), Zanthoxylum piperitum, is another species in the genus.
Sichuan pepper gets its heat from the chemical compound hydroxy-alpha-sanshool, which creates a unique numbing and tingling sensation on the tongue. It is a key ingredient in Sichuan cuisine, often used in spicy dishes alongside chiles.
The species is native to China, India, Japan, Korea, Nepal, and Southeast Asia.
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*The difference between fruits and vegetables: In botanical terms, a fruit is the part of a plant that develops from a flower and contains seeds. Chiles grow from the flower of the plant and contain seeds, making them a fruit by definition. Among the various categories of fruits, chiles are classified as a berry because they have fleshy pulp and seeds enclosed in a single ovary.
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[1] Colorful caramels, packed with heat, each hot chile with its own logo. This box contains all 8 flavors (all photos © M. Cacao ).

[2] This box contains only the hot flavors. You can choose a milder box or a hot box instead of the mixed box.

[3] Green Hatch chile caramel. Each chile caramel variety has its own special design.

[4] Red Hatch chile caramel.

[5] Serrano chile caramel.

[6] Scotch bonnet chile caramel.
[7] Habanero chile caramel.

[8] Scorpion chile caramel.

[9] Ghost chile caramel.

[10] Carolina reaper chile caramel.

[10] Want even more heat? Check out these chocolate-covered whole chiles! They’re not caramels—just pure chiles.

[11] Black, white, and green peppercorns are the members of Piper nigrum. Green peppercorns are not yet ripe, and white peppercorns are white with the black husks—which contain most of the capsaicin—removed (photo © iStock Photo).

[12] Szechuan (Sichuan) pepper: not peppercorns but the bud of a tree in the citrus family (photo © The Spice House).
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