THE HEAT IS ON

Weymouth 51 are blazing a trail through the chilli world with their handcrafted fermented sauces that offer layers of complex flavours from mild and fruity to super-hot tongue tinglers

- Rex Fisher

Back in 2006 the Dorset Naga was declared the world’s hottest chilli. Weighing-in at a tongue-torching 1.5 million Scoville Units – the internationally recognised litmus test for chilli heat – it blasted the competition out of the arena.

Sadly, it can no longer claim that scorching accolade as chilli science has evolved. Super-charged chillies from the USA and South East Asia – with names like “scorpion”, “reaper” and “ghost pepper” – have beaten this sizzling Dorset contender into the corner.

To be honest, who wants to eat a liquid-magma hot chilli anyway? Not me. And not Weymouth 51 – the artisan Dorset chilli sauce company who are handcrafting white-hot magic from their Weymouth kitchen.

Describing themselves as “a grown-up approach to the wonderful, colourful, exciting and delicious world of chillies”, Weymouth 51 focus on mature things like taste, flavour and complexity in their sauces, not numb tongues. Well that’s what they told me when I swung by one of their tasting events outside the Brace of Butchers in Poundbury. It was the late summer bank holiday weekend, my family love chillies - the hotter the better, so I thought this would be a nice family outing.

However, 30 spoonfuls into my stroll along chilli avenue I confess that even this heat loving chilli fiend was beginning to buckle. As my 15-year-old sister held my hand for moral support, mum was dispatched to buy a litre of milk to cool my throbbing tastebuds. I had finally met my match – and I absolutely loved it!