The Douglah has such a reputation for heat and pain I was definitely more nervous to try this pepper than any other previous to this. (Except for maybe my first ever test… The Black Naga) I thought I was going to escape this season with out trying one but Tom must have seen it in my eyes that I would be miserable all winter if I did not get to try one before next year. Thanks Tom! You really sent a nice batch of Douglah’s to me. I know you wanted me to try eating a whole one, but after re-reading/watching all the reviews I decided I could not risk missing a whole day of work curled up in the fetal position nursing milk out of one of my sons sippy cups tomorrow. I hope you can forgive me. The peppers that he sent were about as evil looking as you can get. Wrinkled, spiky, bumpy, gnarled and twisted deep brownish-red pods. Not as plastic feeling as a 7 Pod. You could squeeze these and feel them flex and give little. The actually feel a little hollow in your hand. Sliced open there was no rush of aroma like a 7 Pod. Smelling up close revealed the scent of brimstone and hot forged Iron. (Just Kidding) The smell was very chemical with a very strong capsicum odor. No fruit, no sweetness, nothing saying “Hey I’m not that bad… just pop me in your mouth and see” Also just tiny a hint of Naga mixed in. The pod had a ton of seeds for its size – medium to heavy I would say. Not a lot of seed placenta tissue, but the walls of the chile had a very thick reddish layer of placenta with an extremely oily coating that formed drops all over the inside walls of the flesh. At about this point, the fight or flight instinct started to creep up from the involuntary caveman lobe of my brain. Remembering how pleasant the taste of the Chocolate 7 Pod I had was, I refocused and sliced off…. a quarter piece. (Sorry again Tom) Took a small nibble to check the flavor. Does anybody actually know what Battery Acid tastes like? I wonder now because this tasted just like it smelled. No fruit, or sweetness or any really redeeming flavors. Nothing bad enough that you would want to spit it out but the flavor really was almost like a Capsicum concentrate. A tad bitter, with an oily mild chemical flavor. It really surprised me that it tasted that way. I really thought I was going to want to slice of another piece and taste it a second time. Nope! Even the Primo which had the same chemical flavor had a tiny hint of fruitiness that made me say “I will try another bite to see what fruit it tastes like.” Texture was similar to a Naga or Bhut, it chewed up nicely. Heat wise, it was amazing considering it was only a quarter piece. Only a single blowtorch to the back of the throat but this one really made the roof of my mouth and tongue also feel the torch. None of the 7 Pods really did it anywhere to that level. Heat hit similar to a 7 pod though it took about 3 minutes to peak then lasted another 4 or 5. I had planed to grow 3 or 4 of these plants next year so I am glad I got the opportunity to taste them first. Now I will be happy with just 1 or 2 plants and I will be converting them all straight to powder to help raise the heat level of other powders that taste good. I also want to try growing the Douglah’s from the two other seed sources I have in order to see if they taste the same. Thanks again Tom. I will try and get my friends to try this tomorrow, I just hope they don’t Google Douglah.
This is the photo of the pods Tom sent me to get the nightmares started while I was on vacation.
Here is the inside of the pod I ate.
