The Chilli Experience

Sunday started early for KipperTree’s CEO, as today was to be a trip to interview Alan Stenhouse. Owner and founder of the company The Chilli Experience based in central Portugal.

I set off the short distance from Tomar and headed north to a small place called Areias, nestled in the countryside near Ferreira De Zêzere. Here down a couple of bumpy dirt tracks is Alan’s small farm or Quinta as they are known in Portugal, and it is from here where he runs his Chilli growing business. The Chilli Experience

A warm and firm Scottish handshake greeted me along with Alan’s three dogs, Pickle, Pepper and of course Chilli. 

The Chilli experience is currently an online business specialising in spices and of course Chillies from around the world. Alan has been growing Chillies for over 15 years and began his passion whilst still living in Scotland. We stand and chat briefly as Alan explains all about his life in this quiet backwater and how he came to be in this beautiful part of Central Portugal. 

I quickly jump in at the first opportunity, aware that Alan is a very busy man and start our mini-interview...

What part of Scotland are you from originally? "I am originally from Dunfermline in Fife, Scotland."

What was your profession? "I worked in IT Resourcing / Recruitment for an IT Company in addition to running my chilli production company Spice of Fife (play of words) which won numerous Great Taste Awards in the UK"

Why did you move to Portugal? "We were on holiday in July 2015 and wanted to explore what we could possibly get for our money with a view to moving in 2016 but with the exchange rate being approx 1.4 euros to the £ we stumbled across our dream property and the rest is history."

When did you move to Portugal?  "When we returned to the UK, we put our house on the market, sold it in September 2015 and moved out in October 2015. The timing was perfect as our daughter was only 5 at the time so gave her a year to be involved in kindergarten and learn some of the language before starting school."

Why Chillies? “After travelling to numerous countries and continents, and realising the effect that chilli peppers can have on the end food product, I was thoroughly addicted and started growing my own chillies. Since then, a hobby transformed into a business and I’ve worked in the Chilli business for a long time now. It was the opportune time to move to Portugal as I wanted to get more involved in the growing side of things given the great climate in Portugal” 

What do you miss about the UK? "Apart from the family, a really good authentic, hot Indian curry."

What's been the biggest challenge in setting up a business in Portugal? "Time – everything takes longer than you can ever imagine but you can’t let yourself get too drawn into the process – it is what it is and sometimes it gives you thinking time for what is next."

What's your biggest selling product? It's changed over the years given the demographic of who is living in the country – our most popular markets just now are Indian Spices/mixes, Tex-Mex Spices and fresh chillies."

What's your favourite Chilli? Fatalii White and Chupabrain Peach – probably nobody has heard of these varieties but they have great levels of flavour and heat. Would you like to take a look?"

We meander past the house and down to an extensive open plot set in around half an acre. Here is where Alan’s polytunnels are homed and are just a small piece of his farm which is set in a hectare of agricultural land that also grows as a wild meadow throughout the spring and summer and attracts a wide variety of insect life which helps with pollinating the plants and also controlling outbreaks of aphids.

This is where I get to see the chillies. It’s around 24 degrees outside in the bright autumnal sunshine, but as we step inside the tunnels the heat hits us immediately.

Alan shows me inside each of the four tunnels and explains the different methods he is using to produce the enormous amount of fruit that each plant holds. Alan has about 50 different varieties of chillies from all over the world,  spread across hundreds of plants and the shapes and colours are like nothing I’ve seen before. I can’t give away just how he grows them as that would be unfair, but what I did learn is that they need a lot more water than you would think they would.

Exhausted from the heat after only 10 minutes, I am ushered back to the house to sit and talk with Alan over a nice cold beer. Alan brings out some of his products and I fire further questions at him about the business and running it in Portugal. Alan explains that his customer base has been mainly ex-pats craving the heat we are used to in our food and has had very little business from the Portuguese. Although the Portuguese grow and use chilli in their cooking it's used nowhere near the levels it is utilised in Europe and the Americas. Alan thinks however that this is about to change, as many of the young Portuguese who are from the cities are moving rurally and are into spice and heat. In fact, Alan is so confident, that he is in the process of opening his first shop in a small town called Cabaços where he plans to sell fresh chillies, ground spice and chilli plants.

"The shop will be environmentally friendly." As Alan intends to have his most popular spices in traditional sweet-like dispensers in order that buyers can take their own vessels/containers to fill or alternatively use recyclable paper bags for dispensed products"

Watch this space...

We talk more about how and where he sells his fresh and packed produce and what the range is. He lists the headings in his online store 

BBQ SPICE - MIXES - FRESH PRODUCE - HERBS & SPICES - INDIAN SPICES - SALTS & PEPPERS - INDONESIAN SPICES- TEX-MEX CUISINE - DRIED CHILLIES - CHILLI POWDERS - CHILLI SEEDS - SPICE MIXES: View all Alan's online products here.

"We mostly sell our products in local markets further north, ones that are frequented by ex-pats and I can literally get whatever spice they are after, providing that my supplier has it."

So whatever it is you are looking for and cannot find in your local Portuguese supermarket there is an excellent chance that The Chilli Experience will have it. Alan goes on to explain that they also mail out orders each week with next-day delivery, whether it be fresh hand-picked chillis or packets of spice, it will be with you the next day or Monday if you order on a Friday.

A sample of Alan's dry produce, all neatly labelled and packaged. "We are in the process of investigating how we can remove all of our plastic packaging and replace it with a more eco-friendly alternative." 

I ask one final question.

What's next for the Chilli Experience? "We will hopefully open the shop in the next 1-2 months in Cabacos, Alvaiazere a couple of minutes' drive from the A13 Motorway that runs from the A23 in Santarém to Coimbra.

Then we are looking at trying to organise a Chilli Festival next year in addition to working on the launch of our chilli-infused Gin Brand (definitely 2023!)"

Here's a list of Alan's fresh chillies in order of heat according to the Scoville scale. 

This scale is a tool for measuring the spiciness or pungency of hot peppers. The scale measures the amount of capsaicin (the chemical compound that causes spicy heat) in a pepper and assigns it a number rating in Scoville Heat Units (SHUs). The Carolina Reaper has been measured at more than two million Scoville heat units. Measurements vary, but a really hot habanero might come in at 500,000 Scoville units.

Wow, that is going to burn...

So, it doesn't matter whatever your level of tolerance is, Alan has it at the Chilli experience so, there is no need to miss out on any of your favourite spices or Chillies anymore, no matter where in the world you are from.

Article by Darren Keohane - CEO KipperTree