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favorite Your favorite pepper variety

My favorite is aleppo cuz I love them dried and the plants are also very prolific but this year I'm growing papa dreadie scotch bonnets and they're already really impressing me with their vigorous growth. Very nice looking plants. No pods yet but pretty excited to try them.
 
I have many that I like! It's so hard to decide, but I'm gonna go with SB7J. Great flavor, firm texture, beautiful, evil looking pods. It's probably the variety I eat the most year-round. I drop a half a pod in a cup-o-noodles and be content. It's my go-to dried variety, too. The plant grows like a Scotch Bonnet. A crinkly-leaved, stout & sturdy bush. Production for me is mediocre, but that's me.
 
As of right now, chocolate bbg. I've only had one, but it was just so sweet and the most flavorful superhot I've ever had. The heat didn't overpower it too much either iirc. Yellow Nagabrains is a close second because I love the classic yellow chinense flavor and the heat wasn't too extreme. I haven't tried a ton of varieties though. Those were both from a sfrb I ordered last year.
 
Favorite to GROW.
 
Well i think some of the uncommon ones are the coolest if they crank out the pods. I got what appears to be a Naga that i find fascinating. It just wont quit and my climate dont seem to bother it. I eat far more jalapenos and Anaheims than probably anything else so yeah thats probably a better answer for you. They are not my favorite to grow if i could get them fresh hot and cheap all the time. I do it simply because store bought usually suck the big one. I go through lots of Korean pepper powder but i would have to devote all my grow space to them just to keep me supplied in kimchi.
 
So favorite to GROW usually is defined by what i cant get and what i think sounds cool to try that year. This year i went a bit overboard on bonnets and chinenses in general. I get a kick out of seeing them just loaded with pods.
 
I've liked the standard orange habanero because it was the first "fairly hot" pepper that I grew and it was the only pepper I grew for several years. It's certainly more of a nostalgia effect than actual good taste, although I am a fan of the "Chinense floral flavor". This year I'm growing a much wider selection of peppers and I think Bonda Ma Jacques will be my new favorite.  
 
Fish Pepper.  Gorgeous almost ornamental plants with unique variegated foliage & pods that start green with white stripes and ripen to a deep red.  Tasty, nice mid level heat, great fresh or in sauces or dried.  After that probably bahamian goat/aleppo/padron/piment de bresse. 
 
My overwintered fish pepper throwing pods right now:
 
1z18w13.jpg
 
I love the standard orange habanero. Big reason being is even in my rural SW Virginia location. Their always available. Plus the floral flavor has been toned down. The heat level is just right for me for snacking in using raw on tacos.
As far as peppers ive grown. The devils tongue is probably my favorite. I love it raw and dehydrated.
 
SmokenFire said:
Fish Pepper.  Gorgeous almost ornamental plants with unique variegated foliage & pods that start green with white stripes and ripen to a deep red.  Tasty, nice mid level heat, great fresh or in sauces or dried.  After that probably bahamian goat/aleppo/padron/piment de bresse. 
 
My overwintered fish pepper throwing pods right now:
 
1z18w13.jpg
 

Yeah, me too. All around winner this one is!
 
Mild peppers and hot peppers are like apples and oranges to me. So I will name one mild, medium, hot, and superhot: Brazilian Starfish, Yellow Monkey Face, West Indies Red, Yellow Brain Strain. Main reason is that they are all great tasting peppers IMO. The last 3 can also put out pretty nice sized pods.
 
Scotch Bonnets were the peppers that inspired me to start growing in the first place. I love everything about them-- the look of both the pods & the plants, the flavor, the heat (which is enough to keep me interested but not too hot to share with normal ppl), the Jamaican origins, and the tendency to produce a whole lot of pods. So, I guess that's the one...

However, this is only my second year growing and I've been learning more about it as I go, and this year in starting to develop more appreciation for the plants themselves... The growing habits, the structure, how the roots set themselves up... I think Scotch Bonnet plants look cool, with the big crinkled leaves and all, but I'm not a huge fan of the late production or the show initial growth. Because I've not harvested much of anything yet, right now I'm more into the plants themselves and I'm currently digging Serrano Tampiqueño... They started out left and crooked, lying down, almost vine-like but now they have a bunch of branches growing upwards and they just look full and lush, with fuzziness all over the place....

Thankfully, we don't have to pick just one favorite. But I have a list of "must grow" varieties that, so far, isn't all that inclusive... But Bonnets are up to, along with Fatalii, Jalapeno, and both Red & Yella Brainstrains.
 
Jubnat said:
What, no Black Fatalii?
 
Haha, nope. Black Fatalii (PL) was the first pepper variety to sprout in my first grow. So it was my very first pepper plant, although the pods actually ripened to a mustard color and not black. It tasted alright, but to me the flavor was not as outstanding as the 4 that I listed.  :)
 
SmokenFire said:
Fish Pepper.  Gorgeous almost ornamental plants with unique variegated foliage & pods that start green with white stripes and ripen to a deep red.  Tasty, nice mid level heat, great fresh or in sauces or dried.  After that probably bahamian goat/aleppo/padron/piment de bresse. 
 
My overwintered fish pepper throwing pods right now:
 
1z18w13.jpg
 
That would really tie my room together!
 
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