Chilli in America
What Three Weeks in the USA Taught Me About Chilli and Flavour
In July 2026, I spent three weeks travelling through the United States while supporting my son, who was representing Australia in an under-17 basketball competition.
Chilli wasn’t the reason I went to America.
But when you’ve spent years growing chillies, working with different varieties and producing chilli products, it’s difficult to switch that part of your brain off.
It didn’t take long before I started noticing something.
All photographs in this article were taken during my July 2026 trip through California, Tennessee, Illinois and Wisconsin.
Chilli was everywhere in America
Not necessarily the extreme, blow-your-head-off heat that some people associate with chilli. What surprised me was how comfortably chilli seemed to fit into everyday American food.
It was on supermarket shelves, restaurant menus, convenience-store products and food trucks. It appeared in sauces, snacks, chicken, drinks and even beer.
Before long, what was supposed to be a family trip had developed an unofficial second purpose: I started paying close attention to how Americans use chilli.
Four States and Plenty of Food
America is a huge country, so I’m certainly not going to claim that three weeks travelling through four states represents the entire American food industry.
But we covered a reasonable amount of ground.
In California, we spent time around Los Angeles, Hollywood and Santa Monica.
From there we travelled to Tennessee, including Nashville, Franklin, Brentwood, Leiper’s Fork and surrounding areas.
Later we moved north through Illinois, visiting Chicago, Naperville, Aurora, Romeoville, Rockdale and Rockford, before also spending time in Wisconsin, including Milwaukee and Lake Geneva.
Along the way, I visited major retailers and supermarkets including Trader Joe’s, Walmart, Target and Whole Foods Market, as well as convenience stores such as 7-Eleven.
And naturally, I ate plenty of food.
That included everything from restaurants and diners to fast food and food trucks, including places such as Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. on Santa Monica Pier, Dave’s Hot Chicken, Dell Rhea’s Chicken Basket and First Watch.
I wasn’t conducting a formal survey. I was simply doing what travellers do – shopping, eating, drinking and exploring.
But because chilli is such a big part of my life, I kept noticing it.
Chilli Is Surprisingly Mainstream in America
Coming from Australia, the sheer amount of chilli-related food available surprised me.
In Australia, we certainly eat chilli, and our interest in hotter food has grown considerably. But chilli products are still often marketed primarily around how hot they are.
In America, I noticed something slightly different.
Chilli varieties themselves seemed to be much more recognisable.
Jalapeño, poblano, habanero and chipotle appeared regularly. There were also products featuring Ghost Pepper, Bird’s Eye and other varieties, but the influence of Mexican chillies on American food was particularly noticeable.
A product didn’t necessarily just say “hot” or “spicy”.
It might tell you that it contained jalapeño, habanero or chipotle.
That’s important because different chilli varieties don’t simply produce different levels of heat. They have different flavours, aromas and characteristics.
And I think American consumers understand that distinction better than we sometimes give them credit for.
Chilli Doesn’t Have to Be the Star
This was probably my biggest takeaway from the trip.
Chilli doesn’t always need to be the star of the food.
Sometimes its job is simply to make everything else taste better.
Chilli can contribute warmth, aroma, depth and complexity. It can change the way sweetness, salt, smoke and acidity are perceived. The heat can linger after the initial flavours have disappeared and create an entirely different eating experience.
Sometimes you don’t take a bite and immediately think:
“That’s hot.”
You simply think:
“That’s good.”
And to me, that’s one of the most interesting ways to use chilli.
There is obviously a market for extremely hot sauces and chilli challenges, and America certainly has plenty of those.
But chilli doesn’t have to be a test of someone’s pain tolerance.
Used properly, it is an ingredient.
When Americans Say Spicy, They Can Mean Spicy
One small experience that stuck with me involved Bloody Marys.
Ask for a spicy Bloody Mary in America and, at least from my experience, there’s a pretty good chance you’re going to get something that actually has some heat.
That’s something chilli lovers appreciate.
There’s a difference between putting enough chilli into something so the word spicy can appear on the menu and actually creating a drink or dish where chilli contributes something worthwhile.
Nashville hot chicken is another obvious example.
Heat is fundamental to the identity of Nashville hot chicken, but a good version isn’t simply chicken covered in something painfully hot.
You still want properly cooked chicken, seasoning, texture, salt, sweetness and flavour.
The chilli is part of the overall experience.
American Food Trucks – Plenty of Choice, But Check the Price
I also sampled food from a number of food trucks during the trip, including hot dogs.
Most experiences were good.
One in Nashville was memorable for a completely different reason.
Some food trucks don’t display their prices prominently, and I learnt that it’s worth asking the price before placing your order.
Otherwise you might find yourself paying around US$25 for a very ordinary hot dog.
There’s nothing wrong with charging a premium price for excellent food. If someone creates something genuinely special, uses quality ingredients and delivers a great experience, I’m happy to pay for it.
But premium pricing needs to be matched by a premium product.
That particular hot dog left me disappointed — although it did give me something to write about.
Yes, Americans Are Even Putting Chilli in Beer
One of the more unusual chilli products I brought back to Australia was a can of Pipeworks Chipotle Smoked Porter.
It’s a 7.2% beer incorporating the smoky flavour of chipotle chilli.
I’m not going to review it here because I think it deserves its own article.
I brought several interesting chilli products back from America and plan to taste and review them individually.
But finding chilli being incorporated into something like a smoked porter reinforces the broader observation I kept making throughout the trip.
Chilli isn’t just about hot sauce.
It’s a flavour ingredient.
The Mexican Influence on American Chilli
It would be difficult to talk about chilli in America without acknowledging the enormous influence of Mexican food and culture.
Jalapeño was everywhere.
Chipotle was everywhere.
Poblano was common.
Habanero was readily recognisable.
That was particularly interesting to me because these names tell the consumer much more than simply labelling something mild, medium or hot.
A jalapeño doesn’t taste like a habanero.
A habanero doesn’t taste like a Ghost Pepper.
And chipotle brings something completely different again because you’re combining chilli with smoke.
For someone developing a sauce, seasoning or food product, choosing the chilli variety can be every bit as important as deciding how hot the finished product should be.
Did I See More Chilli in America Than Malaysia?
This is something I’ve been thinking about since returning home.
I’ve previously travelled to Malaysia, where I expected chilli to be everywhere because of the strong chilli tradition throughout Malaysian and Southeast Asian cooking.
And it absolutely was.
But strangely, I came away from the United States wondering whether I’d actually encountered more chilli-related products in America.
I want to be careful with that statement.
I’m not claiming Americans consume more chilli than Malaysians. I don’t have the consumption data to support that conclusion, and my experiences as a traveller aren’t a scientific study.
It’s simply what I observed.
What surprised me about America was the breadth of chilli’s presence.
I saw it in restaurants, supermarkets, convenience stores, food trucks, packaged products, sauces, snacks, drinks and beer.
It wasn’t something you had to go looking for.
Australia Could Learn Something From This
One thing I’d like to see more of in Australia is greater recognition of individual chilli varieties.
Rather than simply:
Mild. Medium. Hot.
Tell people what chilli they’re eating.
- Is it jalapeño?
- Cayenne?
- Bird’s Eye?
- Habanero?
- Ghost Pepper?
- Carolina Reaper?
Heat is only one characteristic of chilli.
Different varieties bring different flavours, colours, aromas and heat profiles, and those characteristics can completely change a finished product.
That’s particularly important for sauce makers and food manufacturers.
You might love the fruity flavour of habanero but not want the finished sauce to be overwhelmingly hot. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use habanero.
It might mean blending it with another chilli variety to retain some of that flavour while bringing the overall heat level down.
Conversely, a very hot chilli can sometimes be used at a relatively low inclusion rate to provide the required heat while allowing other ingredients to remain dominant.
That’s where chilli becomes much more interesting than simply chasing Scoville numbers.
The Biggest Lesson I Brought Home
Three weeks travelling through America certainly didn’t make me an expert on American food culture.
But it did reinforce something I’ve believed for a long time.
Chilli should be treated as an ingredient, not simply as a source of heat.
Sometimes you want chilli front and centre.
Sometimes you want enough heat that there’s absolutely no question it’s there.
But sometimes the best use of chilli is much more subtle.
It sits behind the other ingredients, adding warmth, flavour and complexity. The person eating the food might not even consciously identify the chilli.
They simply take another bite.
And ultimately, isn’t that what good food is supposed to make you want to do?