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Eating with Terry Diehl is like watching a science experiment go awry.
“My face turns bright red, and I start sweating,” he says. “My tongue feels like it’s made of lava, and it’s being stung by a thousand needles. The lining of my mouth starts to feel warm, then my throat. My gums get hot. My teeth start to pulse. I can hear my heart beating in my ears, and I think, ‘Oh my God! What have I done to myself?’ ”
The 34-year-old Penn Hills resident grows extremely hot peppers in his garden and uses them to make a variety of spice blends that range from mild to face-melter. Fans who like their plate to pack a punch can order Big Diehl Pepper products online, where they’ll also find recipes.
Born and raised in a small Bedford County community named Defiance, Diehl took a stand against bland food at an early age. He’d pop habanero peppers like potato chips while inventing new and flavorful ways to add heat to ordinary meals.
The chemical compound capsaicin is what gives spicy foods their kick. The Scoville scale, named after American pharmacist Wilbur Scoville, is used to measure the internal fire of an edible item. A sweet bell pepper, for instance, registers about 100 Scoville Heat Units (SHU), while a Carolina Reaper boasts 2,200,000. Police-grade pepper spray has about 5,300,000.
Diehl is more concerned with taste buds than bravado. His blends enhance dishes rather than wreck palates.
“I don’t particularly enjoy eating Carolina Reapers,” he says. “They don’t taste that good. We like to put flavor before heat. If it doesn’t taste good, why eat it?”
His wife, Racheal – who could barely handle a jalapeno when they met – encouraged him to turn his hobby into a business after sprinkling one of his powders on her dinner. Unlike hot sauces, his products don’t rely on an abundance of vinegar and salt.
Making the stuff isn’t for the faint of heart.
Diehl, whose day job is in IT, buys the peppers at a local market or orders seeds online and starts the plants off in a basement grow room. Ghost, scorpion, Cubanelle, cherry bomb, cayenne, banana, poblano, they all go into the ground around Mother’s Day to avoid a late frost and, by August, they’re ready to harvest.
The devilish veggies are put in a dehydrator and ground up. While doing this dangerous work, Diehl wears protective clothing, a respirator and special gloves. Any pepper hotter than a habanero will burn through latex.
“If I didn’t enjoy how it tasted on stuff, I wouldn’t do this,” he says.
He opened his online store about a year and a half ago. There are 13 blends to choose from and bottles cost between $10 to $15 each.
The most popular is Smoke Bomb, a potpourri of poblano, habanero and cherry bomb. Folks with sensitive stomachs are encouraged to start off with Rocky’s Mild Grind, which combines poblano and cayenne.
Face Melter contains what Diehl calls “a trinity of pain,” ghost, Naga Morich and Carolina Reaper. What’s surprising is the way the three peppers together bring out flavors the plants don’t exhibit individually.
Diehl recently hosted a Carolina Reaper Challenge during the Day of the Dead Festival at Helltown Taproom in Export. After signing a waiver, participants had to devour the dreaded pepper. The popularity of the online show “Hot Ones” – where celebrities answer questions while eating progressively hotter buffalo wings – has turned an entire generation into Chili Heads.
People who enjoy fiery cocktails can grab a Big Diehl Bloody Mary at Mana Boardgame Tavern on the North Side. The beverage will be featured at Pittsburgh’s Bloody Mary Festival on Feb. 16 at The Pennsylvanian Apartments Downtown.
To cool a spicy mouth, Diehl suggests consuming a slurry of milk and sugar chased with some yogurt to curtail the stomach burn.
“The higher up on the Scoville scale you get, the more drastic steps you need to take,” he says. “I’ve tested all of the things people say to do, and it just keeps flaring. If you eat a Naga Morich or a Carolina Reaper, you’re in for a long, bad day.”
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January 14, 2020 at 05:01PM
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