ABOUT LAVA
Our interest, passion, and addiction for chili pepper has been enabling us to “literally” explore the world in search for “what’s out there”, what is hidden in other nations’ lifestyle and cuisines, what every country and culture has to offer to the world when it comes to growing and consuming chili peppers. Every time we discover something new about chili, the thrill for gaining more knowledge, varieties, and connections get even bigger. In other words, once you are hocked on the love of chili, you can never feel dull about it. For us the love of peppers has connected us as chili growers, breeders, and exporters with all human beings beyond any borders or barriers. Chili peppers unify us. We all speak the same language. The very simple way of communication you need to know is that whenever there is a chili pepper used in any form of way of cooking, you know the meal is going to be very good, so if you speak chili, you have no problem connecting with other people around the globe, as long as they also have the same passion for growing, using, and sharing chili peppers. The search and journey of the chili pepper madness has resulted in an immense amount of knowledge, varieties and networking. Therefore, we are sharing with our clients, the finest varieties of chili peppers from around the world. We present to our clients premium products as the outcome of our lifelong journey in the pepper world.
While our passion and interest is more intense in growing wild peppers and superhots, our operation extends to cover thousands of other varieties to offer our clients wider spectrum of tastes and uses for chili peppers. We offer dry pods, flakes, and powders for both superhots and other milder varieties
Dry peppers and powders are more than just a seasoning ingredient. In fact, using dry peppers is a way of living in many cuisines for many cultures. Historically, the Aztecs and Mayas used dry chiles with nearly everything they prepared as noted by historians and anthropologists. Similarly, most indigenous peoples from the Americans, Africa, and Southeast Asia adopted using dry peppers as a celebrated cultural pattern. The demand, uses, and varieties of dry peppers are always increasing.
Dry peppers and powders are not a substitute of the fresh pods, in fact, many people prefer using dry peppers over fresh for several reason. For one, the storage life of the dry pods and powders is very long, they last for years and years (nothing really goes bad in them). Additionally, you can almost use dry peppers and powders the same way you use fresh peppers. Moreover, unlike fresh pods, by containing no water, the dry peppers do not lose, heat, taste, flavor, smell over time or when cooked. In contrast, those elements which form the characteristics and profile for every variety do actually standout when dry peppers are cooked and processed. The taste is slowly and evenly released throughout the cooking process adding a well-balanced flavor to the whole meal.
Such attributes resulted in recipes and ways of cooking strictly asking for dry peppers and powders and not for fresh (i.e. pure, mole, dips, thick sauces, and pastes). Additionally not to forget the uses of flakes and powders in some cooking such as soups, pickling, fruit based hot sauce, jams, and making jerky . While most people associate dry chili with seasoning, the uses and benefits actually go beyond that, some commercial hot sauce makers prefer using dry pod in their operation due to the consistency of the chili pepper characteristics such as heat level, smell, and color. When using the right type of dry chili pepper, some users describe the final product as more pleasant, flavorful, and aromatic. This is because fresh chili tends to have a noticeable level of bitterness caused by the water mixed with capsicum oil especially in the hot and superhot varieties.
LAVA PEPPERS ™
After investing over 15 years in an extensive breeding project aiming to create the hottest, tastiest, and finest chili pepper varieties, the relentless efforts are finally rewarding to all those associated with the project as well as our loyal customers and friends. The LAVA™ breeding project has resulted in producing some of the world’s hottest chili peppers on planet earth with some samples registering over 2.7 million SHU and an average of 2.5 million SHU. The LAVA comes in three different colors Yellow, Red and Black.
The Black LAVA™ is the hottest of all three and the hottest thing any human can experience. Therefore we had never shared any seeds for any lava variety in order to keep control of quality and purity of the strain. The LAVA™ tasting outcome is literally the experience of trying the melting rock (actual lava) in your mouth-if anything like that even possible- we know no human has ever tried to taste the melting rock simply because it is impossible and you will not stay alive. Well, we think experiencing our Black LAVA™ is the closest thing any human can get to living the real experience of the heat from the melting rock. This LAVA variety have an exceptionally heat levels average above 2.7 million SHU combined with natural smoky like flavor with low tone of sweetness and strong aromatic flavor. The Red LAVA™ a bright red, outrageously HOT pepper with exceptionally sweet and very aromatic floral profile variety preferred by extreme hot sauce marker. This LAVA variety offers users both the maximum heat and flavor of the Capsicum Chinense specimen it has a clean long lasting smell that simply makes you addicted to consuming more and more of the sauce make from this variety. The red LAVA variety is the most commonly requested by our clients and used in our line of production. The Yellow LAVA™ a bright Yellow with highest oil content in any yellow chili pepper variety, this LAVA variety has a very strong citrus like flavor with a long lasting after sharp after taste of superhot lemon like flavor. This variety is favored in making superhot yellow powders, can be used in all forms of cooking and seasoning especially with fish, meat, and poultry.
The LAVA peppers breeds cannot be found in any other place on which is a competitive advantage for those using it in their products (mainly hot sauce). We have created this breed and have not released any seeds; therefore, we are the only supplier for these strains in the world. Every year we plant, process, and export LAVA dry peppers and powders for few selected buyers around the world, we supply limited number of hot sauce makers in USA, Canada, Europe, and Australia.
Our peppers are organically-grown with no use of any chemical pesticides we guarantee the products to be form from any aflatoxins, ochratoxins, pesticides, artificial color. The fresh, fully-ripen pods are harvested in early august and immediately processed in our factory which is exclusively designated for the lava operations.
The ripe LAVA peppers are handpick, stemless, and in prefect shape and conditions before being sent to factory. The fresh pods are oven dried using commercial stainless steel dehydrator built for this task only. The pods are dried to moister content less than %4 using hot air circulations with temperature of slowly graduating for a period of 24 hours to reach the temperature of 160 °C (320 °F) in a closed room. This slow drying process preserves the natural color, taste, oil continent, and look for our LAVA strains. After drying we fill customized order as preferred by our clients. Some customers ask for whole pods, other request flakes, and most request fine powders.