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sampling seriously hot peppers every Monday in Lakeland

cycadjungle

cycadjungle

I'm going to give everyone enough advanced notice this time. For those of you who live anywhere near Lakeland Florida, this Monday night at what has been known as hot pepper night, or spicy Monday at a local north Lakeland establishment, we will be taste testing the Carolina Reaper, 7 pod Douglah, and red Brain Strain to compare taste and heat levels. Anyone interested who maybe hasn't tried these before are cerainly welcome to come out and join the fun. We do this every Monday night, usually starting just after 8 PM. By 8:30 we are cutting up and sampling fresh peppers and then we are slicing them up and having them fried.
If you are a newbe, we usually have about 7 different types of hot peppers available to try out each night. We aren't trying to eat whole superhots or that kind of thing, we just sample small enough pieces so we can really get a good idea on taste and heat, so you don't have to try and prove anything to anyone. We're just having fun, but it is always fun to burn a new person's face off though when they haven't ever tried a superhot.
After the testing, we slice the mainpart of the peppers up and they add halapenos and onions and fry them up as a mixed basket. Sometime you don't know when you pick up a red slice whether it is a red fatalii or a red Brain Strain until its too late, but thats fun too right?
Another aspect is that they will make other foods that can include pepper pieces that we have available, and then there is alcohol. We have come up with a few hot mixed drinks, but our favorite is a water moccasin with a bite. A regular water moccasin is crown royal, peach shnapps, and sour mix. Muddle in a big slice of red brain strain and you get the moccasin with a bite. As long as we don't get about 20 forum members coming out for this, I can say that I will buy everyone who shows up a free round on me! Its sweet, but its warm going down.
Anyway, anyone who is interested PM me and I can give you the location information. We are going to a reputable chain restaurant/bar establishment so you don't have to worry about this being at a dive or anything. I look forward to seeing some of you there this Monday. Come on Sic, you have to come out one of these nights. Take a nap or something in the afternoon and come out! Tom
 
 
if you get a chance let us know how the reaper compares to the brain strain. thank you
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Sure, I would love to do that. I will give you a report in this thread on Tuesday sometime. Tuesday mornings are a bit rough :), but by the afteroon, I'm getting around like normal. I will give the report on taste and heat for the brains, reapers and douglahs. It won't just be my opinion, but the general concensus of the group of about 6 to 10, more if any of you come out this Monday. There are others who show up, but you can't get everyone to try these supers fresh. More people will try them after they fry them up, and use them in food in some way. Tom
 
Nobody from THP showed up for hot pepper night but that doesn't mean we didn't have a good time. 11 people did the triple test and gave their input on what they thought. 6 other people tried some pieces, but didn't have the nerve to try all three of these peppers. For the main test, we tried, in order, carolina reaper, 7 pod douglah and then red brain strain. In a secondary test, we compared the douglahs to the chocolate bhut for taste, heat and length of heat, just as we did with the fist 3. We also tested a yellow brain strain, plant number 8, which we have tried other plants in this group of 10 plants, just to see which one produces the hottest and tastiest peppers. The best plant will be used for the next generation. Anyway, back to the main test results. Keep in mind we only tested 1 particular pepper of each type so other peppers from other plants will vary, but this won't be the lest time we do a test like this. we do something like this almost every week when we have something new. Also got to test a new salsa made by one guy and another yellow sauce made by someone else.
Everybody didn't totally agree with everyone else where a few thought the chocolate pods were hotter than the red ones and some other variations, but for a general concensus, here are the results below.

Ok, carolina reaper. As soon as the pepepr touches your mouth, lips or whatever, it is an instant, solid, even intense burn that takes several minutes to start going away. This is a first for me and makes this one distinct in this regard. It had a red taste, but the initial taste you get is very weak. Even though it doesn't taste bad, it just isn't remarkable in any way. It took a few people's breathe away at first and got their hearts racing a bit. Length of heat was rather long, maybe about 8 minutes or so. This pepper seemed to attack the lips on most people. One person felt it in the throat more.
So, fairly disappointed on the taste and very happy about the heat level. We will be testing more, so later on we will compare the taste with other reapers just to see if others will have a stronger taste.

7 pod Douglah, Very unique flavor that you get at once. It isn't as simple as a smokey flavor, but for a lack of other terms, I would go with that. The heat takes a bit to hit you. The full, rich taste comes out first and then in about 10 seconds the heat comes in a blasts you. This one hit everyone deep in the throat and bypassed the lips and mouth. For about 5 minutes it felt like your throat was a little caldron of lava. That was not pleasant but it finally went away. For this one, the heat seems to go away quicker. Over all, I think slightly less hot than the other 2 in this test. This should make a better powder than in a sauce. Everyone liked it though. One person thought this one was worse and a couple of new guys out at a table, away from the bar that insisted on trying some of these, this one retired these two guys from teseting more peppers. We really liked this one but more for specific purposes.
red brain strain. VERY good strong red taste that comes out right away and is different than scorpions or bhuts. This one may be my new favorite. The heat you taste at once, but it takes about 30 seconds to come on strong and well over a minute or so before the full blunt of the heat hits you. The heat lasted a long time. Longer than these other two peppers. Once the heat gets to maximum, it ook a good 10 minutes to lighten up. We already knew from past tests that in our opinion, the brains tasted about 30% hotter than the moruga scorpions and we still go with that. These plants are being grown side by side and taken care of exactly the same, so this comparison is relative to the exact conditions. This one got some people in the throat and some people more in the mouth and lips.
Now, the big bottom line. douglah was less hot than the other two. The reaper was MUCH hotter at first and is strong and solid for heat. I can see what we have been told about these peppers is true that they must have a good oil level. The brains come on slightly slower but are still quite intense. Keep in mind again that this was just 2 individual peppers and the results may vary, but asked the big quas the reaper or the red brain hotter? The result was inconclusive. The overall opinion was that the reaper as a total was not hotter than the red brain once it kicked into high gear. Personally, because of the much better taste, I prefer the red brain over the reaper.
We hope to see other hot pepper forum people in the future, you are always invited every monday night. Tom
 
Shame no one from here came out! Come on people!! Thanks for the notes though Tom, very interesting.
 
 
old man said:
Thank you for the update. I am looking forward to your other tastings and the commentary that follows :P
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We do this every week, but usually, it is deciding between the pods that come from plant 1 or plant 2, or something like that. A good way for me to nail down the best genetics for the next year and that way, it isn't just my opinion but that of a large group of individuals. I guess the next big taste test will be in about 6 to 8 weeks when we compare the reaper with the 7 pod Primo. If by any chance, when we try other reaper pods, one tastes better than the one we just tried, I'll come back here and let you know. This last one certainly didn't have the great taste that was promised when buying the seeds. Thats alright, that pod had a good look to it and I extracted 52 seeds out of just that one pod. Nobody is wanting my boxes of peppers I have offered that would include at least one reaper from this group of plants that are isolated from the rest of the plants, so instead of selling these other peppers, I'll just have a pile of seeds to sell and make new reaper plants for sale.
 
Great review of what sounds like a very fiery time. It`s a shame you are 3000 miles from me, or I`d be there ever week!!!
 
 
Nigel said:
Great review of what sounds like a very fiery time. It`s a shame you are 3000 miles from me, or I`d be there ever week!!!
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Nigel, we would be proud to have you here. I distributed packs of pepper seeds to 5 different people that all live in and around Vista (Fallbrook, etc.) when we were there for The Cycad Society annual board meeting and Cycad Day event this last August, so maybe there might be a group like this brewing in your area. I can tell by your other posts that we would have probably gotten along real well together, its a shame I wasn't posting very much at that time. Maybe someday, or if you are ever in central Florida, I'd be proud to show you around. Tom
 
Very informitive, I had been wondering what the flavor was like and how the heat hit you, I wonder if the flave and heat is intencifide when the pods are dried and powdered? I'm growing the red Brain strain, Barrackapore, Infinity, red Primo, Moruga Blend, and Red Naga Morich to name a few, I can't wait to try some of them fresh to get a Idea how they taste and how the heat hits you.
I plan to grow the Reaper next year along with the T.S. Butch T. to see which one taste better Although I think the Reaper will be way hotter than the Butch T.
 
Thanks Tom!  I enjoy informative posts like this - it goes a long way to helping one decide on what to concentrate on for the growing season and also gets the mind ticking over in term of possible breeding endeavours.
 
Cheers
 
 
wildseed57 said:
Very informitive, I had been wondering what the flavor was like and how the heat hit you, I wonder if the flave and heat is intencifide when the pods are dried and powdered? I'm growing the red Brain strain, Barrackapore, Infinity, red Primo, Moruga Blend, and Red Naga Morich to name a few, I can't wait to try some of them fresh to get a Idea how they taste and how the heat hits you.
I plan to grow the Reaper next year along with the T.S. Butch T. to see which one taste better Although I think the Reaper will be way hotter than the Butch T.
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I don't think the flavor will be better in a powder. I've found that you lose the complicated flavor of the fruity pepper when you make it into a powder.
Yes, the reaper will be WAY hotter than the Butch T. I would try to get some seeds from Butch just in case his are better than what other people have available. The ones I got a hold of did not have the heat and length of heat as did the Morugas. If I had to compare tastes, I'd say the Butch T tastes better. This reaper didn't stand out at all. For me, sort of what I thought about the 7 pod Jonah. The taste of even a Jonah is richer than this reaper, but the Jonah compared to peppers like a Brain Strain or a Moruga is lacking in strong flavor.
 
RobStar said:
Thanks Tom!  I enjoy informative posts like this - it goes a long way to helping one decide on what to concentrate on for the growing season and also gets the mind ticking over in term of possible breeding endeavours.
 
Cheers
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I agree, this is one reason we like doing this kind of thing. My sample was rather small, but if I had to give you some advanced suggestions, I'd go out and order some of those jigsaws for next year. From what I had to taste, which was material off of a few seeds, that one is going to have a nice rich flavor. The guy who sells them in Finland says they are hot as well, so without even trying a pod, I will go out on a limb as say this one is well worth the try. I'll have some pods about late September, and we will certainly try them out first at hot pepper night! :) Hopefully at that time we will be able to compare the jigsaws, reapers, primos, and brains all in the same sitting. ( I guess the difficult sitting comes the next morning) :)
 
Just to add, I will have another reaper to check out this Monday night. I will also have at least 1 douglah and more than 1 brain strain so even if we don't do another formal three way taste test, these peppers will be ready for sampling again this week. For next Monday a week or so from now, I broke down and couldn't wait the extra few weeks. I went out and bought a box of 7 pod primo pods so this next week we will be able to do the full primo/reaper taste test.
 
As usual, last night was hot pepper night. I table full of new people got to try a plethora of hot peppers including the reaper, douglah, and brain strain. They all liked them and want to come back another night. More adding to tge group.
I'm glad I mentioned in a previous post that I realized individual peppers will vary. That was pointed out last night. This reaper came from a different plant. The pod shape itself looked more like a lumpy bhut than what we are being shown as a reaper. This one had a better, stronger taste. Not up to what I was hoping, but maybe half way there, which I'm happy about. The heat on this pepper was way different. We called this one the creeper reaper (sounds catchy doesn't it?) last night. It didn't come on as strong as the last one, but in about a minute, it creeped up to a new level of heat. This time, it was obviously hotter than the red brain strain.
So far, the red brain strain has been the hottest pepper in the world as far as we are concerned. The brains, on average, are tasting about 30% hotter than the average moruga scorpions (which I think right now still has the highest recorded heat rating)Since this reaper beat our previous brains, right now, the reaper is right where we were being told, so congratulations to everyone involved who made this pepper. You know, in other threads I am seeing people bitch about pod shapes and if the peppers are worthy just because of what they look like, shape wise. This reaper didn't look like what we are wanting to see in shape, but it was bumpy and certainly packed a better punch. I do have a plant putting out small smoother pods and I would assume those might not be as hot, but apart from that, I'm not sure about anyone else, but if the pepper has the right taste and has the ehat you are expecting, I really don't care too much what the shape of the pod is. If your blending them up to make sauce, nobody is going to care what the pod was shaped like! I know the brains I'm growing right now don't have an overabundance of perfect formed brains on the bottoms, the but they taste great and have some killer heat, yet you will have someone turn down the box because of something like this. Anyway,
If my box comes in on time, we will get to compare the reaper and primo side by side, and if both my boxes get sent this week, as they should, I'll also get to play with some of those really nasty looking chocolate scorpions. I ordered both boxes before the weekend was up and they ship on Tuesdays I think, so both should be on their way soon. These scorps don't look hotter than these other, but they are soooooo bumpy, they have to be hot, right? Tom
 
I was looking forward to this post. nicely done, I feel like I was at the tasting tables with you. see ya next week (in cyber space that is)
 
I got both my boxes of peppers in the mail yesterday, so next Monday should be interesting. One box was filled with 7 pod Primos and the other with Chocolate Scorpions. Those scorps are HUGE. There were only 20 something of them in a box, they are so big. Well, we get to compare the chocolate scorps with the 7 pod Douglahs for taste and heat. We also get to make the long time coming comparison of the Carolina Reaper with the 7 pod Primo. Since these Primos weren't mine, I will still have to compare these two again when I have these producing with the exact same conditions. Just from looking at the pods I got, I have all kinds of observations on the differences between these two pods, but I will hold off on that until I am growing my own because I can't be sure of the sample size I got and how it relates to the whole batch that was produced.
Anyway, everyone is still invited next Monday night after 8PM or so. I'll have a report on these two pairs of peppers next Tuesday. I'm glad you guys are enjoying this. I'll try to keep it up as we get in new things. Tom
 
Its Tuesday, i am waiting for my weekly "fix". Your not letting your day job interfere with this pepper update are you? lol
 
Well, I can tell you I had a rough morning compared to some of the other Tuesday mornings. I'm just getting on the computer tonight. The Monday night banana milkshakes have served us all real well over the months, but eating reapers, primos, and douglahs all in the same night, I must have needed a bit more banana.
The crowd was a bit smaller last night but we had about 8 people trying all the fresh peppers and I had just finished making some pepper powder that morning, so we got to try my first Reaper Dust and Douglah powder.
We got started with just trying the powders. The Reaper Dust has a fairly rich taste to it and certain packs a wallop. I think this will be a good way to sell reapers that may not have the perfect form. The Douglah powder held that unique taste that you first get when you eat this pepper. It was also quite hot. It was just as hot as the Reaper material, so both of these must be real close as far as heat goes after the pepper is dried out.
After a warm up with the powders, we started right in for the big test that many people have wanted to try for the last 10 months or so. We tried the Carolina Reaper first and then the 7 pod Primo. I grew the reaper but bought in the primo so I still want to compare again when my own primos are ready in a few weeks. The reapers seem to have a thicker wall to them where the primos seem rather thin compared to most of the superhots I have tried. More like a bhut. The reaper this time had a fairly good taste to it and was hot as soon as you tasted it. It was very even and intense. The 7 pod Primo burned at once as well. In this case, the Primo has obviously a little more intense than the reaper. 7 out of 8 people said the primo beat the reaper in heat intensity and for longevity.A couple of the regulars had that look people make when their face turns red, start to sweat, and have that sick looking look for about 5 minutes after eating the primo. I think Pex may have said this recently in his video, or I saw this in his thread, but both of these peppers seem to be very close in the way they burn and is at a different level than the other peppers. A Douglah comes in hot, but doesn't last as long. To tell you the truth, I can see that if someone grows the right pepper that will make a new record, either the Brain Strain, Douglah, Primo, or Reaper are all candiates to take the title. all they have to do is beat 2,009,000. After harvesting many reapers now and seeing the different primo pods, the primos are WAY more consistant in form. I know we have been told that the reapers have been stablized for 8 generations, but these peppers seem to be more inconsistant in form compared to some of the other peppers. I'm not going to argue anything, this is just an observation with a sample size of 30 plants.
Next after everyone sucked down some banana milkshakes and cooled down a bit we tried the 7 pod Douglah and the Chocolate Scorpions. The Douglah preformed just like the past one did. A really strong smoky, nutty type of taste and then the burn comes in. The inside of this pepper looked like it was washed from the inside, there was so much liquid in it. The burn lasted a longer time than the one we tried the week before. We next tried the chocolate scorpion. These things are huge! The taste is like a chocolate pepper but it doesn't have near the good taste the Douglah has. Its not a bad taste, just sort of flat. If I had to use one or the other for taste then the Douglah would win hands down. The burn on the scorpion wasn't has hot as the Douglah, but was fairly close. Probably under a Brain Strain and maybe about the same as a Moruga Scorpion. The thing about this one is, that the heat kept on going and stayed a lot longer than the Douglah. It wasn't as unpleasant as the two red ones we tried out ealrier, but it did hang on for a good amount of time. If I had to pick one or the other, I'd go with the Douglah. Sure we seem to like a long burn for some strange reason, but a Douglah has a very unique taste that you don't get anywhere else. I took all of these same peppers to a party the earlier Saturday and the over all favorite of that crowd was the Douglah.
I'm not sure what we are going to do next week, but it will probably not be as exciting as this week. I'm already recovered since this morning, I even used some Brain Strain powder on some of my left over flatbread from Monday, this evening, so I can't be too bad off. We never learn do we? Tom
 
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