What's wrong with the chile peppers?

This question has been hounding me for a while now. What's going on with the chile peppers? Why are they not hot as they used to be before? Or why are they not uniformly hot? One batch is not hot at all and one batch of the same kind, maybe purchased after a few days, is just a tad hot. But the overall trend has been towards less hot. Let me explain.

When I came to the US in 1996, I fell in love with the flavor of jalapeno chile peppers. They were medium to very hot and gave a flavor that was unknown to me till then. I loved them so much that I packed them in a paper bag and sent them to India to my mother-in-law. Since the peppers were hidden under the packing material, the post office accepted it. But those jalapenos have not been heard off thereafter.

Since then till date I have noticed a steady decline in the quality of jalapenos. Not only are they fickle in their heat factor but their unique flavor has dissipated too. So I have tried serrano chile peppers and thai chile peppers. I find serranos overwhelming, all flash and heat, no flavor and substance. But I liked thai chile peppers. They are tiny, cook faster and even a single one infuses the heat uniformly through the recipe. I switched to thai chile peppers wholeheartedly.

But in the last few months the same thing is happening. Whereas before I had to add only two thai chile peppers to a chutney now I have to add at at least five or six to get a semblance of heat.

What's going on to the chile peppers of the world? So I turned to my chile expert, the Chile Pepper Institute in New Mexico. And I got the following reply, "the environment plays a huge role in how hot chiles become on the plant. With the demand for hot chile peppers on the rise more locations worldwide are growing them. When hot chile peppers are grown in very temperate or moderate environments they are usually less hot. The other factor is breeders and seed companies are developing new varieties that are not as hot to older counterparts, this is due, again, to the increase in demand." So good things as well as bad are happening here. Demand for chiles has increased, people are interested in the variety of chiles and they are trying new things. But the bad news is that the essence is being diluted to cater to the increased demand.

So what should the cooking enthusiast do? Know your produce, visit farmers market and try to buy local or, best, grow your own chile peppers. It's not hard to make them a part of your kitchen garden. I'm gonna to do that.