How the Jalapeño Lost Its Heat

How the Jalapeño Lost Its Heat

Food critic Brian Reinhart fell in love with spicy Mexican cuisine as a teenager in Texas, but over the years he started to notice that the jalapeños he’d buy in the grocery store were less and less hot. So he called up an expert who studies chili pepper genetics, and she shared a shocking revelation. In this episode from our friends at the Slate podcast Decoder Ring, host Willa Paskin tells the story, then talks with Los Angeles Times columnist…