This past Thursday, Central Market kicked off its 18th annual Hatch Chile Festival by firing up its chile roasters for the first time this season and serving spicy treats to a few hundred chileheads.

Central Market lined the entrance to its produce section with  Hatch chiles, Hatch salsas, Hatch tortilla chips and much more. It was an overload of chile goodness. The Hatch Chile Festival runs through August 20 and includes various cooking classes, easy-to-make Hatch chile recipes and ample Hatch products found throughout the store.

The Hatch chile is a pepper variety that grows in the Hatch Valley, an area that stretches north and south along the Rio Grande in New Mexico. The season is quite short, and Central Market has long celebrated the pepper’s availability with this two-week long festival.

Other than the fact that the Hatch chile products on offer are delicious, Central Market’s festival is considered a “New Mexico true” event by the New Mexico Tourism Department, making it one of the most authentic festivals you can find outside of the pepper’s home state.

The store is filled with thousands of delicious edibles, but the kick-off party last week opened jars and bags of the spiciest, tastiest products for guests to try. Hatch chile tortilla chips were meant for dipping into the Hatch chile salsa and bean dip. Chocolate chip Hatch chile cookies tempted everyone, as they should — sweet and chocolaty with the hit of heat at the back of the throat. Jars of Hatch queso and guacamole were also available that evening—two must-haves in this Tex-Mex-loving city.

And what better way to convince Houstonians of a Hatch chile’s commitment than to marry it with a Tex-Mex classic, fajitas. The fajitas at the kick-off event weren’t shy with the Hatch chile either. In fact they were Hatch-everything—Hatch chile tortilla, Hatch chile marinated beef, Hatch chile guacamole and, of course, roasted Hatch chiles.

There were two refreshing yet spicy drinks on offer that evening, too: Hatch chile lemonade and Hatch wine-a-ritas. As you sipped the lemonade, it was sweet and tart as you would expect, but then the heat from the chile delicately hits the throat making for a sweet, spicy concoction. A particular favorite of the night was the wine-a-rita—habanero and Hatch chiles muddled with agave then mixed with white wine and orange and lime juice.

Sympathetic to the heat that party-goers were experiencing, Central Market provided an aloe vera juice/coconut water drink to help cool the palate and the burn. Coconut water is excellent for immediate heartburn relief, and aloe vera juice helps to repair any damage that may have occurred to the esophagus over time. Or so we were told. The drinks team added a dash of pineapple juice to the mixture for a surprisingly tasty and refreshing drink.

James Ditmore is a marketing specialist for the New Mexico Department of Agriculture and is in Houston now through August 17 to spread the Hatch knowledge. Ditmore hosts Green Chile Boot Camp sessions for retailers across the nation, and it was our turn recently to learn a thing or two from the Hatch expert.

5 Nosy Questions with James Ditmore

What does it mean to be an expert on the Hatch chile? After 30 years of studying Hatch chiles, I’m still learning something new about them every single day. Some consider me an “expert,” but I prefer to be known as a “chile whisperer.”

Since you’re the chile whisperer, what is something we probably didn’t know about the Hatch chile? There are a few things. First, the Hatch chile is a “designer” chile that was developed especially for growing conditions in New Mexico. Second, they come in mild, medium, hot and extra hot. You can’t tell how hot a Hatch chile is just by looking at it. You need to rely on the expertise of your produce manager for this. You can also break them open and smell them. An extra hot chile will have a very strong fragrance.

If you had to pick a Hatch chile dish to eat for the rest of your life, what would it be? Hatch chile isn’t just for breakfast anymore, so there’s no way to limit myself. That said, I love pasta Alfredo with Hatch chiles and bacon, green chile chicken enchiladas and chile rellenos.

Hatch chiles aside, what else do you enjoy cooking? I love cooking fresh stir-fry dishes using Asian chiles and flavors— noodle dishes in particular. I also make a mean chocolate chip cookie, but you can count on me to sneak green chiles in. I call those “Take It To The Tollhouse Cookies.”

What is your favorite Hatch memory? One November about 30 years ago I found several pods of green chile near some lettuce fields. I took them home and cooked with them. It was a really special surprise because November is well beyond the traditional harvest season. I’ve never seen it happen since.