Cigar Aficionado

Wait until you smell a tumbler of roasting Hatch chiles. You’ll want to follow your nose, but be quick about it. The Hatch chile of New Mexico is a delicacy that is generally available fresh only during August and September. The rest of the year, the chiles—whole, chopped or sauce—only come jarred or canned. The peppers are also geographically exclusive, being grown in and named for the Hatch Valley region that stretches along the banks of a curving Rio Grande in eastern New Mexico about 80 miles north of El Paso, Texas. While 37 varieties exist, to be considered authentic they must be grown in the Hatch region. What distinguishes the nine-inch-long-by-two-inch-diam…