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Mysterious Jungle Pepper

andres

andres

Ok, this goes with a bit of a story. I live in Guatemala, Central America. Needless to say we eat a lot of hot stuff over here (Mainly chiltepe, jalapeño, cobanero and rocoto). Well, I returned recently to a trip from Peten, which is one of the most remote locations in the country and ancient capital of the Mayan culture.

But, I digress... turns out in a little village I saw a woman selling chiles she called Petenero Chiles. These looked a lot like mushroom chiles but they are very strange, so that I cannot make out what type they are. When I tried them raw it was surprising because first bite... almost nothing. Then I started to feel the pain. These babies are hot... habanero hot, perhaps hotter. Here are some pictures. Any help indentifying this pepper is welcome, because my curiosity is killing me!

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Anyway, I bought out all the 20 pounds that were for sale for the astronomical price of: US$8.00... I'll be making my famous hot sauce tonight!

P.D. By the way, I am new to the forum and I must say it's great to be here.
 
G'day endres, welcome to THP.

I don't know what your mystery pepper is, but it looks really tasty. The ripe one looks to have a little tail & the green ones don't ??
 
First off, welcome to the boards andres...

Wow...nice looking peppers...the ripe one with the tail looks very interesting. I noticed the same thing as Bent did as far as the ripe ones having a tail and the green ones not.

I definitely agree with Potawie...please save some seeds....I would love to grow those...

***scratching head wondering how much airfare is to Guatemala***
 
As you can tell, there is a lot of interest in your mystery pepper. The ripe one has a weird shape...
 
I agree.... some kind of Scotch Bonnet. Maybe it's just a local term for certain types of chillis as I read on a site "PETENERO- Called "rocoto" or "manzano" in Honduras". Obviously yours don't look like either of them.
 
lol he tells us a mystery and where all after the seeds to this mysterious beastie and welcome to the forum and sharing your mystery with us:)
 
Thank you for all the input my friends. I definitely will be saving seeds from the mature pods. I don't know when I'll be visiting the jungle again. This is a very strange pepper... it smells just like a habanero, it has an extremely fruity taste. The texture is very crunchy. Now, about the heat... it is very irregular, you can bit into one part and no heat. Then you think: "I think I´ll take another bite". 5 seconds later you are sorry you underestimated this little guy. I will save seeds this saturday when I get make hot sauce and get drunk (and not in that particular order)

As to the Cobanero... the flavor is kind of smoky and quite unique. We usually eat it dried and powdered. Heat level I would say it is hot, but not overpowering. A little under the habanero. Again everything with chiles is subjective to the taster.

P.D. We call the rocotos: Chile de Caballo
 
andres i think the fact it has a habanero taste has a lot of us interested..thx for sharing the information and all the best growing your mystery chilli :)
 
Who'd be interested in seeds from these strange puppies? I can also try to dehydrate them, but don't hold me to that.
 
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