( CNN ) -- India may be turning the world 's hottest chili into a weapon , but there are people who actually want to eat the ghost chili -- the bhut jolokia or naga jolokia -- for fun . `` As soon as something is declared and proven to be the hottest chili pepper in the world , everybody wants to grow it , '' said Dave DeWitt , the author of more than 35 books on chilis , including `` The Complete Chile Pepper Book . '' `` So they can take people out in their yard and say , 'That is the hottest chili pepper in the world . Do you dare eat it ? ' `` A small but dedicated group of chili pepper lovers fosters its devotion to heat on Web sites and at festivals nationwide . They gather at annual events such as the Chile Pepper Food Festival in Bowers , Pennsylvania , an autumn affair that features a pepper-eating contest , naturally , but also a song contest and excursions into the fields where fans can see how their favorite peppers are grown . In their homes , fans congregate for `` hotlucks , '' the traditional potluck with exponentially higher heat . Mark Stevens of Monmouth County , New Jersey , is among these self-proclaimed `` chili-heads . '' `` The main issue is flavor , '' Stevens said . `` It 's not a pissing contest to see who can eat the hottest thing , which is usually what you see when the media reports on the stuff . '' Once an eater gets used to the heat , he or she begins to appreciate the flavor differences of each varietal , Stevens says . `` You basically build up a tolerance to the heat and then can taste all the flavors that are underneath it , so that what was just basically flavorless blazing heat , after a while , you can actually taste the different flavors in different chilis in different foods , '' he said . Stevens says he began eating chilis in the early 1990s when he needed to lose weight . `` I wanted something that I could snack on that was pretty low-calorie but definitely let me know that I had eaten something , and chilis kind of fit the bill . '' Dave Hirschkop has been selling hot sauces for 17 years through his company , Dave 's Gourmet , and says it 's the hottest sauces that are his best sellers . `` There are a lot of people that just want to challenge themselves , '' Hirschkop said . `` They want to see what the hottest thing in the world is , either because they 're daredevils or because their heat tolerance is amazingly high and to get that reaction they like , they need something that 's super strong . '' Hirschkop sells two sauces made with the ghost chili , a pepper so hot it rates about 1 million on the Scoville unit system . Tabasco comes in at around 5,000 . The Indian government said last month that it planned to use the ghost pepper in a tear gas-like hand grenade aimed at fighting terrorists or rioters . Making a weapon is `` probably one of the best things you can do with them , '' DeWitt said . The peppers get their heat from capsaicin , a chemical that the plants have developed to keep mammals from eating them ( mammals destroy the seeds in the digestion process ) . Birds , which can eat the peppers and pass the seeds through their system , are immune to the heat of capsaicin . The people who really like to eat the super-hot chilis probably do n't have as many capsaicin receptors in their mouths , DeWitt says . It 's the fiery reaction that Dave 's Gourmet customers are searching for . Hirschkop puts the ghost chili in one of his `` Insanity '' sauces as well as in a limited-edition hot sauce he sells in a wooden coffin tied shut with caution tape . `` This one has a great flavor but is the hottest in the world ; that 's the bottom line , right ? '' he said . `` People are n't talking about some cascabel [ chili ] or some other variety with that enthusiasm . ''
Chili pepper lovers foster devotion to heat on Web sites , at festivals nationwide . Expert says there is variety of flavors once you get past peppers ' heat . Comment: