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Importance of Location in Flavor

andres

andres

I was wondering... as you know everything tastes different depending on where it's grown. Many factors affect this: quality of soil, altitude, weather, etc. My main example is coffee. Coffee from the exact same kind of plant will taste completely different if raised in Ethiopia rather than in Guatemala. The difference in taste is truly astounding to the point you would not believe both coffees come from the same type of plant. Same happens with other crops, such as grapes, sugar cane, and the list goes on.

Now, would this prove the same for chiles, and is there room in this world for chile master tasters or chile sommeliers? Would we be willing to test this and take chiles from different parts of the world to a jury to determine the best regions for chiles?
 
I nominate IGG since he clearly has the most experience with tasting different peppers and sauces. I would gladly assist though. What an interesting idea.
 
I think that most origin chili peppers come all over the world from South America,Caribbean Island,Trinidad & Tobago they are all in the tropics that why the original flavor unbeatable in my mind is from those countries I mention above you can grow any pepper plants any where in the world the will going to be hot to some point but I stil thinks where is realy origin of those plant there is the best flavor & heat all that depend on soil quality,moisture, heat,air, altitude all those elements that is my opinion.
 
I would suggest though that you can recreate any condition you want with a greenhouse. Can you not? Isn't that how the Red Savina came about?
 
Makes me wonder about the hops I am growing...

Heat (different from flavor) is a defense mechanism that seems to be intensified the more "worried" or stressed a plant becomes.

While heat is somewhat separate from flavor, it does impact the over-all flavor profile, complicating it horribly.

Maybe a bell from two different regions could be compared, but any hot pepper would be difficult IMHO.
 
I would think with all the variables involved, two plants from the same mother plant could be very different in the same neighborhood. Hell, I can have two plants side by side that have different heat levels right?
 
Plants originate from certain places for a reason. The conditions there are perfect, that's why they started to grow there in the first place. The plants growing there are probably of high quality, but as cheezy said, it'd probably be hard to compare the taste properly when it comes to hot peppers.
Nowadays it's possible to come as close to certain conditions as never before, that'd make it even harder to tell a difference. WHat Omri said is also right, of course. You can tell when you get some tomatoes that have next to no taste at all, because they were mostly bred for rapid growth in soil that has no natural nutrients left in it.
 
its definetly a case of natural conditions over time..and this of course affects all plants,trees and even licans :)
 
JayT said:
I nominate IGG since he clearly has the most experience with tasting different peppers and sauces. I would gladly assist though. What an interesting idea.
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I accept your nomination...so, where's these peppers?
 
Environment is an important factor as well. Height and weather is what makes the crops difer in different regions. The stresses and properties of each region are inherent so they should not be avoided. Growing in a greenhouse would ruin the experiment because it would isolate the plant from the natural conditions of that particular area.
 
I don't think that a plant has to be grown in its original environment to have the best flavour or production, but certain environments obviously work better for certain plants.
I grew San Marzano tomatoes for years but they don't taste or produce anything like they do in the San Marzano valley in Italy. I'd now rather buy them canned from Italy than grow them myself.
 
I agree with you Potawie, but... We use greenhouses to grow crops which otherwise would not grow as well in our environment. I say that if we were to make an experiment it would have to be under natural circumstances. I for one would be willing to send chiles grown in Antigua, Guatemala. We need to designate master tasters
 
andres said:
I agree with you Potawie, but... We use greenhouses to grow crops which otherwise would not grow as well in our environment. I say that if we were to make an experiment it would have to be under natural circumstances. I for one would be willing to send chiles grown in Antigua, Guatemala. We need to designate master tasters
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I volunteer. Pick me! Pick me! :onfire:
 
All peppers species come originaly from South America what is realy capital of the world from where they come from in rest of the world , over there in Amazon basic is naturaly humid & hot in tropics so I still think that they have best even now more not discover lot of wild species & about the taste they are unbeatable that is my guees .
 
Well... not necessarily. Again my coffee example. Coffee is not originary from America, yet America produces some of the best coffees in the world, because coffee grows better over here than in its native land. That is why this would be an interesting experiment. We are not only considering heat, but flavor profile as well. Chiles raised in different environment may have different flavor notes.
 
The only way to have great flavor & heat is like the most breeders in the world try to come up with flavor/heat at the same time takes a lot of year to create new great pepper by crossing so many times some one going to come up with King of all (pods) peppers that what I think is possible.
 
Interesting idea. I wonder if the peppers from the same area taste the same year after year? We can have very different conditions in summer (like three months of rain, or a few heat waves), so that could affect the taste as well.

We probably also learn each year and may (or may not) produce better/hotter peppers after a few years.

It's my first year starting from seed, and so far it has been way beyond expectations. Plans are still thriving, the Cherry Bombs and Hungarian waxes are already of a decent size pod, and the rest is flowering. I forgot to take notes (I don't want to overdo it) but I see things like grow spurts after repotting to a bigger size, difference in resistance to heavy sun, some seem to wilt easier etc.

I never looked in to this, but is there an easy way to measure Scoville units? If so, we could already pick a few varieties, buy the seeds from the same place, and measure/compare online.

We could also measure weight and size (averages), number of pods per plant, and daily temps.

Of course, a pepper "sommelier" would be even better. :cool: After all, taste is a big factor (but not as objective).
 
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