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Compare & contrast: carribean red vs. orange hab

mega

mega

My wife keeps asking me, how does a caribbean red taste compared to the familiar orange hab? We have 35-ish carib. reds starting to ripen. Thing is, I've never had one! Anyone know how these compare - hotter? Different tasting?

Bonus question: Anyone know what hot paper lanterns taste like? We have about 50 or 60 of these just starting to turn - no idea how they taste!
 
mega said:
My wife keeps asking me, how does a caribbean red taste compared to the familiar orange hab? We have 35-ish carib. reds starting to ripen. Thing is, I've never had one! Anyone know how these compare - hotter? Different tasting?

Bonus question: Anyone know what hot paper lanterns taste like? We have about 50 or 60 of these just starting to turn - no idea how they taste!
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Why not just try one? ;)
 
The heat is close to the same for me. Orange is more of a quick bite with traditional hab flavor. The caribbean has a bit more of a fruity almost raisinish taste to me, and the heat takes a tad longer to set in. But it also lingers a little longer than the Orange. This has been my experience. As medicine has made famous, I will apply the label "results may vary" Im with orrevs on this one. Try one and see what happens.
 
Good hot orange habs varieties should be just as hot as Caribbean reds but quite a different flavor. Personally I'm not a huge fan of either these days, there's just too many flavors out there that I enjoy more
 
POTAWIE said:
Good hot orange habs varieties should be just as hot as Caribbean reds but quite a different flavor. Personally I'm not a huge fan of either these days, there's just too many flavors out there that I enjoy more
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Hey hey! Not fair! No hinting at stuff.. what do you enjoy more these days? :-)

(Always looking for ideas here).
 
I found the paper lanterns to be a milder tasting version of the orange hab. Heat wasn't bad though. The thing is I'm not a big fan of either. I've got some c. reds growing right now and am waiting on them to ripen up as well. I'm looking forward to trying them.
 
to me the Red Savina (I say it is the same as a caribbean red) has more of a sweet citrusy taste hotter than an orange hab but sweeter...paper lanterns....mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...don't really like them but they make pretty pods and lots of them...

I know this...the red savina puree I put up two years ago is deliciously hot, sweet, and is great for flavoring meals...
 
I have some red Caribbean pods from a year old plant that are very hot and very nice tasting almost immediate burn that lingers (not sure if they being from a year old plant makes any difference, just they are the only RC's that are ripe at the moment). I think the texture is a bit better than the orange hab, a bit softer pericarp.
 
AlabamaJack said:
to me the Red Savina (I say it is the same as a caribbean red) has more of a sweet citrusy taste hotter than an orange hab but sweeter...paper lanterns....mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...don't really like them but they make pretty pods and lots of them...

I know this...the red savina puree I put up two years ago is deliciously hot, sweet, and is great for flavoring meals...
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Erm, you got a recipe for that? :)
 
I got a bunch of orange habs growing and two caribbean reds growing. I'll shall do a comparison. But ultimately it's nice to have both for me just because I like all the pretty colors of my garden :D
 
I quite agree...the colors are a big plus. I really like seeing different color habs growing next to each other. Mine are ripening and I think the taste test orange vs. red will come in 4-5 days. Meanwhile, we've eaten several of the hot paper lanterns, as they matured early. Interesting....sort of a "mild habanero" taste to me. Not as strong a flavor as a typical hab, nor as strong a heat either. Habanero Lite, perhaps. Not bad. It takes several with all the seeds in to really heat up a dish, whereas with an orange hab, a single pod with its seeds can bring the heat to the right point for me. I have to say the paper laterns are not really standing out to me, in any way; they're more of a background ingredient. However, they look very cool on the plant.
 
Following up on this thread:

Well Mega man, any new news to report on the differences?

I am eating one of my caribbean red hot right now and had one of my orange habs the other day and for me, they both have a different flavour( I have eaten orange habs for years, so I am familiar with the taste), there was a hint of hab in the c/r but the c/r had almost a blend of ceyenne flavour in it. It was not as hot as my hab, still hot but not as hot. At first, I didn't like the taste of the c/r, perhaps because of the ceyenne overtone that I sensed but as I have been sampling it all day I am trying to understand its flavour. The first time I ever ate an orange hab, right away I new I had never tasted anything like it(citrus/apple and just a new flavour); perhaps one day the world will come up with a universal term "haby like", much like citrusy/appley/lemonie/cherry/mustardy(eating my mustard greens and right away you get that hit of mustard and if I said to someone mustard the could relate).

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