For whatever reason, I read as many British newspapers as American. It balances the view and broadens perspective.
The Guardian is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as The Manchester Guardian; it changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers The Observer and The Guardian Weekly, The Guardian is part of the Guardian Media Group, owned by the Scott Trust.
The Guardian’s series “The New Face of Small Business” recently featured Yao Zhao and his company 50Hertz Tingly Foods, which “isn’t a chili oil or spice purveyor – it’s a ‘sensory company’ importing the taste of China’s Sichuan province to the US.”
Why “50Hertz”? Taylor Holliday explains at Explore Parts Unknown (“Where the Peppers Grow”).
Even more than other spices that have been endowed by evolution with defensive odors and tastes, Sichuan pepper seem designed not to be being eaten. Once you get past the thorns, the taste of a fresh or freshly dried berry leaves your mouth, tongue, and lips buzzing and numb for several minutes. It is literally electric: The active ingredient, sanshool, causes a vibration on the lips measured at 50 hertz. According to a 2013 study at University College London, that’s the same frequency as the power grid in most parts of the world.
Consider my curiosity piqued.
Rebel with a ‘tingly’ cause: Yao Zhao brings piquant peppers to the US, by Nina Roberts
The peppers that anchor Zhao’s brand grow in south-west China and possess numbing properties that make mouths tingle and buzz. (They are not to be confused with chili peppers, which are primarily associated with their heat.) Food from the Sichuan province of China is fairly well known in the US, yet these Sichuan peppers, derived from tiny fruit balls that grow on prickly ash trees, have yet to enter the American culinary lexicon, but Zhao is betting on US consumers’ expanding desire to explore new facets of a popular cuisine. While many Asian-American businesses took a drubbing from the economic downturn during the Covid-19 pandemic, Chinese restaurants in the US have experienced a recent rebound, growing in number by 1.2% from 2021 to 2022, according to market research firm IBISWorld.
Zhao says that 50Hertz is not a chili oil nor a hot sauce manufacturer, but rather a “sensory company”. At a recent New York City tasting held at the downtown Asian emporium Pearl River Mart, the 34-year-old took it upon himself to underscore to each willing taster that Sichuan pepper is tingly as opposed to spicy. Many shoppers left with the product in hand. “Spread the tingle!” was Zhao’s parting cry.
