What is the diffrence between Jamaican Hot Chocolate and Chocolate Habanero peppers?
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chinense Jamaican Hot Chocolate and Chocolate Habanero diffrences
- Thread starter feeltheburrrn
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I was thinking a JHC is an annuum, Chocolate Habanero is a chinense...but I definitely could be wrong...
i'll start by saying i don't know from personal experience. but a year ago i looked into "the chocolates" trying to decide what to grow for 2011. i purchased choc habs and choc bhuts from pepperlover, so this will be my first experience with chocolates.
but, whilst pondering what type of chocs i should get i ran across a plethora of varieties, many appeared to resemble one another in the hab world. example choc hab, jamaican choc hab, choc scotch bonnet, choc congo and almost all description of flavour remarked on the smokey taste.
what intrigued me about the jamaican was its 85 day to pod maturity versus the 100+ on the habs, which for me would have been a definite advantage due to my very short growing season. but i had a shopping list prepared and pepperlover met most of the varieties i was looking for, so i settled on what was available. i'll probably still keep my eyes open for the jamaican choc hab though.
but, whilst pondering what type of chocs i should get i ran across a plethora of varieties, many appeared to resemble one another in the hab world. example choc hab, jamaican choc hab, choc scotch bonnet, choc congo and almost all description of flavour remarked on the smokey taste.
what intrigued me about the jamaican was its 85 day to pod maturity versus the 100+ on the habs, which for me would have been a definite advantage due to my very short growing season. but i had a shopping list prepared and pepperlover met most of the varieties i was looking for, so i settled on what was available. i'll probably still keep my eyes open for the jamaican choc hab though.
How was the flavor and heat of the Jamaican Hot Chocolate? How productive was the plant?
I never grew the Jamaican Hot Chocolate but I checked thechileman.org database and it says it is a C. Chinense.
Both varieties look very similar so I would not expect large differences in taste or hotness.
I grew both last year and actually posted a topic about them a while back:
http://www.thehotpepper.com/topic/17447-chocolates/
Basically, the Jamaican Hot Chocolates seemed to ripen faster and had more flavor to them, while the Chocolate Habanero took what seemed like forever to ripen and was really sweet tasting. In food, I'm not sure you'd be able to tell the difference though.
If I remember right, both peppers (the fruit, not the plants) grew to about the same size, and the biggest visual difference was in the way they change color... some of the Hot Chocolates seemed to have a very slight red tinge to it, while the Chocolate Hab was all-out brown. So it's possible that some of my Jamican Hot Chocolate peppers were not fully ripe.
Overall... they're both good, both hot, but I prefer the more mellow and sweeter flavor of the Chocolate Habanero (which I'm growing again this year).
http://www.thehotpepper.com/topic/17447-chocolates/
Basically, the Jamaican Hot Chocolates seemed to ripen faster and had more flavor to them, while the Chocolate Habanero took what seemed like forever to ripen and was really sweet tasting. In food, I'm not sure you'd be able to tell the difference though.
If I remember right, both peppers (the fruit, not the plants) grew to about the same size, and the biggest visual difference was in the way they change color... some of the Hot Chocolates seemed to have a very slight red tinge to it, while the Chocolate Hab was all-out brown. So it's possible that some of my Jamican Hot Chocolate peppers were not fully ripe.
Overall... they're both good, both hot, but I prefer the more mellow and sweeter flavor of the Chocolate Habanero (which I'm growing again this year).
Apart from "BUT JOKER' the chocolate habanero was the hottest chillie I have ever eaten.
It also morphed into a longer (cooler?) pod later in the season. Some say I may have been hallucinating.
Definitely a pepper worth growing and a Chinese
It also morphed into a longer (cooler?) pod later in the season. Some say I may have been hallucinating.
Definitely a pepper worth growing and a Chinese
I am growing Chocolate Habs this year and they are slow at growing but I now have one pepper on 1 of 2 plants. All plants have flowers and ready to start growing. It seems odd though. My 7POD/7POT's have full grown peppers ready to turn anyday and the Scorpion Tails have peppers just growing. I figured that the Chocolate would be quicker than those two. Guess I was wrong. Can't wait to try them. How many peppers do they typically grow per plant?
I have grown various types of chocolate habs for many years, but last year was my first opportunity to try a Jamaican Hot Chocolate pod, courtesy of a member here.
I noted several differences between these varieties.
First, Chocolate Habs are like the "Saint Bernard" of the Habanero family - depending on the specific variety, the pods tends to be quite large, one variety in particular had the largest pods I have ever seen on a C. Chinense species! (It made a Big Sun Hab look like a Tepin!)
The JHC pod was exactly the opposite - it was actually smaller than a regular hab!
On heat, before the superhots came out, Chocolate Habs were considered by many to be perhaps the hottest thing out there.
The JHC was the same heat, or perhaps a little milder (hard to tell, as I was tasting superhots at the same time, and after trying a Yellow 7, ANY Hab is gonna taste mild in comparison!
)Exterior & interior coloring of the JHC was the same as a regular Chocolate Hab.
But Taste/Flavor was the biggest difference! The JHC was remarkably more flavorful / tasty compared to the various Chocolate Habs I have tried in the past.
Does this chocolate monster have a name?
As I mentioned before my chock. hab. had small normal habanero shaped pods in high summer turning to elongated 3' or so long pods in autumn. Go figure.
there's a lot of black-congo-types being labeled as chocolate habs.
chocolate habs should be no larger than the average habanaro (i'm growing two plants right now that seem to be true to type).
jamaican hot chocolates are supposed to be a specific strain acquired by a seed saver at a jamaican market. it was supposedly a unique kind of pepper among a stand full of the usual yellow/orange/red repertoire.
chocolate habs should be no larger than the average habanaro (i'm growing two plants right now that seem to be true to type).
jamaican hot chocolates are supposed to be a specific strain acquired by a seed saver at a jamaican market. it was supposedly a unique kind of pepper among a stand full of the usual yellow/orange/red repertoire.
As Ultrazelda said the JHC has more of a red tinge to it. Found the chocolate hab much more productive. Pictures of both below from my garden a couple years ago
Chocolate hab
Jamaican hot chocolate
Would those who have grown both the Chocolate Hab and Jamaican Hot Chocolate be able to comment on the colour of the immature pods?
Madhatter's photo show green pods for both the varieties. CCN have a JHC listed as maturing from dark green.
Edited 2013-01-10: Fix CCN link.
I just recieved a packet of JHC and under variety it says C. ANNUUM?
JHC should not be a C. Annuum. The labelling maybe a sign that you should try to obtain JHC seeds from a supplier that has it categorised as a C. Chinense such as PepperMania
The way I look at it is that if it doesn't have the look of a scotch bonnet, then it's not a scotch bonnet. I was wondering the difference too since the so-called Jamaican chocolate scotch bonnet doesn't resemble a scotch bonnet. I'm gonna cross my chocolate habaneros with my red Jamaican scotch bonnet to see if I can get the proper morphology. Anyone know what they mix these peppers with to get the brown color?
Edit: the JHC don't look anything like habaneros. I'm not sure why they call them habaneros, lol. I'm gonna see how the chocolate habanero looks like I got from pepperlover. Lots of peppers are being called habaneros that don't resemble the proper morphology or taste.
Edit: the JHC don't look anything like habaneros. I'm not sure why they call them habaneros, lol. I'm gonna see how the chocolate habanero looks like I got from pepperlover. Lots of peppers are being called habaneros that don't resemble the proper morphology or taste.