Chances are, you or someone, you know, loves chili peppers.

You know the type.

The hot sauce people.

They got like eight hot sauces in the fridge.

I say this as if I am not one of those people.

I am one of those people.

There's just, you know, whether you're talking habaneros or jalapenos or pari paris, there's

just every single culture has a different kind of delicious hot pepper.

I cannot get enough of that flavor and heat.

In the United States, the home of our chili peppers is without a doubt New Mexico.

Oh my gosh, yeah, it's a culture.

That is Denise Coon.

She is a native of New Mexico and the senior research specialist at the Chili Pepper

Institute at New Mexico State University.

Yeah, that's a thing.

There's, you know, the hatched chili festival is huge.

The fiery food show in Albuquerque is huge.

It's just a, it's a really big thing.

The culture is just part of New Mexico.

Folks like Denise study everything about chili peppers from how to enhance their taste

and texture to how they can improve the yield for farmers.

And all of this and more is happening at the Chili Pepper Institute.

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