TASTE & BUY PEPPA??

Paula gordon, STAR Writer

Higglers selling plums and guineps are known to allow their customers to taste the products before they buy them but now THE STAR has learnt that persons selling scotch bonnet peppers are allowing their buyers to do the same.

Sounds a bit strange but information reaching THE STAR is that several higglers in downtown Kingston and along Hope Road near the TGIF restaurant have been involved in the practice.

One woman who recently stopped to buy peppers at the Hope Road location said that she was amused when she heard one of the higglers shouting ‘taste and buy pepper, hot pepper, hot pepper, taste and buy’.

She explained that the practice is extremely amusing. “People did a laugh and ting cause dem a say how yuh fi taste and buy pepper,” she told THE STAR. “People did all a joke a say gi wi a bag a pepper mek wi share it up and taste it.”

Another woman who also claimed to have witnessed the practice in downtown Kingston said she is not surprised because Jamaicans do the funniest things.

“Only in Jamaica. All rat poison dem advertise fi taste and buy,” she remarked.

When THE STAR visited the Hope Road location yesterday we met a fruit vendor who told us that the pepper vendor was not out for the day. He, however, gave us a number to reach the vendor.

‘original pepper man’

When contacted, Goldy who claimed to be the ‘original pepper man’ told THE STAR that he does in fact advertise his peppers as taste and buy.

“It just come to me one day, I find it as a slang and people just like it, people say dem go foreign and hear bout di ‘taste and buy’. Man say dem go church and preach bout it,” he said.

He explained that he uses the tactic in order to draw people’s attention. Furthermore, he said that since starting the practice several persons have shared in the experience.

“If dem want it I give dem to taste, yeah man people come to taste it, taxi man, woman and so, people carry it home and say it nice,” he remarked.

Scotch bonnet peppers are a member of the Capsicum Chinese pepper group, which is believed to contain some of the hottest peppers.

Consumed capsaicinoids contained in the peppers bind with pain receptors in the mouth and throat that are responsible for sensing heat. Once the receptors are activated by the capsaicinoids, they send a message to the brain that something hot has been consumed. The brain will then respond to the burning sensation by raising the heart rate, increasing perspiration and releasing endorphins.

Meanwhile, Goldy says that he is out each week with his fresh peppers and persons are being invited to visit him at the location to share in the experience.