A milder habanero may be ready for market in two years By LYNN BREZOSKY
Associated Press Writer

The Associated Press
Researcher Kevin Crosby looks at pepper plants being grown at a Texas A&M agricultural research facility in Weslaco, Texas, on Friday, July 20, 2001.

HARLINGEN, Texas (AP) -- From the plant science that has sized onions for burger buns and made watermelon pits an option, there's a new innovation: mild habaneros.It's an oxymoron given the spicy nature of the orange peppers, but it's bound to sell big. Salsa makers dream of bringing the aroma and taste of habaneros to middle America."Mild. That's always the key word," said Ben Villalon, the veteran pepper researcher who had a mild jalapeno out in the 1970s, long before salsa became a billion-dollar industry.Villalon's lab at Texas A&M had been fielding requests from salsa makers who hoped the same could be done with habaneros.Researcher Kevin Crosby, who inherited the habanero project when Villalon retired, says his plants are only a few generations from perfection, which means the milder pepper could be available to consumers in two years.That's good news to marketers, bad news to "chile-heads" who fear the fire is being bred out of peppers."I know every time something like this comes out, your hard-core chile-heads get all up in arms," said David Gibson, editor of the Fort Worth-based Chile Pepper magazine.But Gibson and other aficionados see the logic in trying to tame the flavors and aromas of a pepper that's six times hotter than a jalapeno -- so blisteringly hot that a smattering can render a pot of food inedible. Handlers wear gloves against the sting of the juice.

The Associated Press
Several varieties of habanero peppers which are being cross-bred at a Texas A&M agricultural research facility in Weslaco, Texas, Friday, July 20, 2001. Through such breeding techniques, researchers have developed a variety of habanero pepper that is very mild.

Crosby has been crossing Mexican habanero species with the milder wild habanero species from Bolivia and Colombia. His research started as a search for a hardy plant that would adapt to the southern Texas soils, which lack the tropical moisture found in Central and South American soils.Charles Davis, president of Habagallo Foods in McAllen, a business launched on faith in the habanero, says the researchers are on to something big. He takes credit for calling Villalon, and envisions big profits in what he calls the "mildaneros." Most people use the pepper for its heat; he thinks they could be used for the flavor that's currently overpowered by that heat.In one of his frequent experiments with the peppers, he put some habaneros on a cookie sheet and baked them."The smell was just unbelievable," he said. "I said 'Man, I would like to get more of them in my sauce. But they're hot!"Davis also is excited about using the hybrid in his new michelada mix. It's used to make the popular Mexican cocktail, a mix of beer and spices served over ice in a salt-rimmed glass. It's already available in supermarkets across Texas.He said a milder habanero would help him reach a wider market."The further north, the lighter the taste buds are," he said.Pace, the nation's leading Mexican salsa marketer, knew that when it introduced its milder jalapeno in 1996."When you have a mild (jalapeno) it expands your opportunity to reach consumers," said John Faulkner, spokesman for Campbell Foods in Camden, N.J., which now owns Pace.