• If you need help identifying a pepper, disease, or plant issue, please post in Identification.

chinense Habanada peppers

Not sure if anyone has heard of this new pepper called the habanada. It supposedly is a habanero with no heat, only the habanero flavor. I picked a plant up at a local nursery after misreading the label. Needless to say I was kinda bummed as I thought they would pack a decent punch. Then I realized how cool it can be and the uses it has. I can't wait to cook with them and use them in sauces. It can help cut the heat of some of the super hots in the sauces, without losing the pepper favors. What do you guys think?
 
Trust me so am I, just thought it was kinda interesting. As I said I was bummed out they had no heat just thought it was cool
 
Never heard of them, but you have my attention. Kind of like the fooled-you jalapeno, eh? I'm also a heat man, but I have a limit. I would love to have the flavor without so much heat!
 
vghU9uVm.png

 
I have to grow them this year for a customer, he got the seeds from http://www.tomatogrowers.com/HABANADA/productinfo/9670/
 
I can't stop seeing posts about this chile in the last few months...! I started one this year after getting seeds from Bakers Creek. I know there's already plenty of heatless hab types, I've grown a few, but this one at lest looks supremely cool! I love heat as much as the next chilehead (well, maybe not AS much, my dirty secret) but I am certainly into the taste aspect as well. A great tasting sweet has many uses to me...!
 
I'm a big fan of the Orange Habanero flavour (as opposed to other colours) so if, as looks to be the case, these have that, I'd be all for them as a way to share it.
 
Jutty said:
Not sure if anyone has heard of this new pepper called the habanada. It supposedly is a habanero with no heat, only the habanero flavor. I picked a plant up at a local nursery after misreading the label. Needless to say I was kinda bummed as I thought they would pack a decent punch. Then I realized how cool it can be and the uses it has. I can't wait to cook with them and use them in sauces. It can help cut the heat of some of the super hots in the sauces, without losing the pepper favors. What do you guys think?
 

I usually grow one type of no heat pepper, last year I grew Trinidad Perfume.  This year I am growing a variety called Sweet Heat.  I find them very useful especially if you are making Habanero Jelly and such because adding say too many Habs to a batch of jelly makes it to hot for most people but say 1-2 habs and the rest Trin Perfume and I get the intense Hab Flavor I like and not so much heat that normal non chili-heads cannot eat it. 
 
cheers
 
Peppers like these are killer for Caribbean curries/jerks without all the torture. I love hab flavor in some things but i reach a point that the heat just gets to be too much. Same with hot sauce. Use these to cut back on hab sauce heat but retain the hab flavor.
 
I went a different route this year though and went with the mildest yellow hab i could find that still has heat. Beni Highlands are pretty low on the scale but still plenty hot for lots of us.
 
Buzzman19 said:
I usually grow one type of no heat pepper, last year I grew Trinidad Perfume.  This year I am growing a variety called Sweet Heat.  I find them very useful especially if you are making Habanero Jelly and such because adding say too many Habs to a batch of jelly makes it to hot for most people but say 1-2 habs and the rest Trin Perfume and I get the intense Hab Flavor I like and not so much heat that normal non chili-heads cannot eat it. 
 
cheers
 

How did you find the Trinidad Perfume?
 
spicefreak said:
 
How did you find the Trinidad Perfume?
 

I ordered seeds from pepperlover.com, I saw them while I was browsing there site and liked the description.  I cant say they are my favorite so far, I havent really found a no heat pepper yet that has a hab taste that blows me away so I keep searching. 
 
This year I saw the Sweet Heat while at a local Nursery so I bought a plant.  I still have about 2 lbs of Trin Perfume in freezer which is enough to augment my recipes for season.  I only make stuff for friends and family. 
 
cheers
 
So, what's the flavor actually like? It seems like these no heat chinenses never live up to the whole "chinense flavor without the heat."

It's a weird catch-22...it generally seems like the more heat a pepper has, the more flavor it has, but the heat is also getting in the way of some of the flavor.

Of these no-heat/big flavor types, I've only had Trinidad Sweet, and Aji Jobito. They were both pretty bland, and the Trinidad Sweet had a fair amount of heat on and around the placenta. I'm growing the Aji Jobito this year, so maybe I'll find some better than the single pod I tasted.
 
Jubnat said:
So, what's the flavor actually like? It seems like these no heat chinenses never live up to the whole "chinense flavor without the heat."

It's a weird catch-22...it generally seems like the more heat a pepper has, the more flavor it has, but the heat is also getting in the way of some of the flavor.

Of these no-heat/big flavor types, I've only had Trinidad Sweet, and Aji Jobito. They were both pretty bland, and the Trinidad Sweet had a fair amount of heat on and around the placenta. I'm growing the Aji Jobito this year, so maybe I'll find some better than the single pod I tasted.
I find with the Aji Jobito it's better to pick them yellow then let them fully ripen for a few days until they are almost orange. That's when they are very tasty. They seem to develop flavour with time and I totally taste that Persimmon flavour the Nigel Carter described in his review.

Persimmon + C.Chinense = YUM

True that the flavour is not the same intensity as supers but Aji Jobito is a brilliant ingredient that anyone can enjoy.
 
Jase4224 said:
I find with the Aji Jobito it's better to pick them yellow then let them fully ripen for a few days until they are almost orange.
Why not just let them ripen fully on the plant?
 
Jubnat said:
Why not just let them ripen fully on the plant?
 
It probably cuts the sugar production and changes flavor. Think about the flavor change between green and red Jalapenos.
 
Jubnat said:
Why not just let them ripen fully on the plant?
Good question.. I'm not sure why but I like the flavours that chillies develop after a few days on the bench inside.

Thinking about it perhaps removing the pod from the stem cuts its water supply, it begins to slightly dry out and further ripen which would concentrate and further develop the flavour. That's my reasoning but I might have to do a comparison to test!
 
Back
Top