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

flavor Flavour profiles, descriptions, preferences no short cut's ?

E

Englander

Hi Guy's

I'm sure we have all watched countless "pod reviews" on you tube often wondering if we could endure the heat of a particular pod or indeed like or love its flavour :think:

We hear various terms used to describe the "taste/flavour" such as :

"7 Pot taste"

"Naga taste"

"chinense"

"Fruity"

"Sweet"

"Floral"

" Grassy"

"Soapy"

"Citrus"

It would seem until you have built up a personal experience of these flavours they are kind of meaningless !

As my personal experience increases these terms have more meaning.

The term "Grassy" i believe i now understand after i tasted my Mustard naga ! Yes kind of makes sense personally I enjoy the flavour and heat its different from other Naga I've had.

This brings me to "Naga flavour " I've grown and eaten Dorset Naga Bengle naga and Fatallii gourmet jigsaw the later reminds me of a Naga like flavour.....but with other flavours I don't recognise I'm assuming from the Moruga ancestry ? I know know I like "Naga flavour"

The Bengle naga is described on seaspring seeds website as having a bubblegum like flavour and yes sweet and fruity and very aromatic I really enjoyed it 😋 but is this the same as "Floral" :think: do I like "Floral" pod's :think:

The 7 Pot Douglah smelt "fruity" when I sliced a pod open 😋 but when I cooked it I to a dish repeatedly I did not like the aftertaste........

The Scotch Brains yellow I grew last year had a very strong flavour which was obvious and i also enjoyed it 😋 is that "Chinense " flavour I've heard of :think:

The chocolate scotch bonnet I personally find hard to put into words but I know I love it !

Also as people's personal preferences differ makes it hard to know what you will like/enjoy ?

Trouble is for most of us the only way to taste different varieties is to buy seed and grow them ! Which in colder climates takes a long time and is limited by greenhouse space.

Obviously in the state's people have much more excess to fresh rare pod's and the ability to simply grow loads of different varieties outside which must be heaven.

This season I've tried to select varieties that have Naga DNA in there ancestry in some case's on both sides hopefully I will like the flavours.........:think:then there's the Trinidad moruga scorpion a "must grow/must try" superhot but I've no idea if I'll like it !

Personally was wasn't blown away by the Bahamian goat or Aji Lemon drop which you often hear people rave about !

Guess there's no short cuts just simple got to try and find out what you like ...........
 
Last edited:
It's all very personal of course...

If you have watched his youtube channel, you know that Nigel Carter has a very extensive way ("palette") to describe the taste/aroma/... of chili peppers. But you'll have to experience it by yourself to understand it.

As for the "citrus" aromas... I don't really get that in fresh pods, but when I take a frozen (yellow) scotch bonnet out of the freezer and cut that to pieces while it's still frozen, I get a very strong lemon scent. Not just "citrusy" but literally lemon, as if you're actually cutting a lemon, which is lovely. This scent fades when the pepper thaws. Or maybe it just starts to release other aromas that mix with the lemon aroma...

"floral" is easy to understand once you taste a floral pod. To me that's synonymous to "immediately throw that plant on the compost pile"! 😄It's like eating a scented flower...

"chinense" to me means "habanero taste". That means "avoid" too. But that's just me, I know many people like habs.

7pot taste... I only tried the yellow 7pot brain strain and the 7pot burgundy. These were very different. There's probably not just "a" 7pot taste. I don't know if the burgundy is pure 7pot though...
 
I like these topics :)

My 2 cents (no expert here, just an enthusiast).

Every aroma and flavor has another subject as its reference, so yes you need to try as many things as possible to update your brain "database". Those who have a poorly developed database may think that they are "invented" notes; in reality during tastings with professionals the specific notes often converge, or are "translated"/"decomposed" (e.g. lychee to rose).

Temperature also influences aromas; for example, if you take a double IPA, a strong Belgian ale or in any case a high ABV beer, and drink it cold from the fridge, the smells and flavors will be different (and killed) compared to drinking them at the right temperatures (and in the right glass, which conveys specific aromas). You may therefore have the impression that the beer is not your type as it is "bitter" (well, some American IPAs and Neipas are bitter just the same; but here the hops and the balance infused by the hands of the brewers come into play). Malts with their sweetness often appear with heat, as opposed to ethereal flavors that fade. The complexities also increase, until the temperature point of no return is exceeded and a certain imbalance (also of consistency) is returned.

I personally associate the buzz word "Chinense" with dairy flavours, such as sweetened milk. I struggle to associate it with "soapy".

"Floral": the question to ask would be: which flowers? If you smell the flowers, you will see that they are very different from each other; often a given color corresponds to a given aroma (e.g. yellow flower > yellow fruit > yellow pepper).

With the aji lemon, rather than a general citrus fruit, I associate the finger lime, which has more complex balsamic notes than a lemon or lime. The terpene limonene also degrades easily with temperatures. For this reason I prefer fresh aji lemon rather than dried.

In organic wines, sour or aged beers, or fermented products, you can perceive notes of metals and different bacterial/yeast strains. Recognizing them also helps to understand if you are faced with a "right" job, or "off-flavors".

However, I find that, compared to drinks or chili peppers, the fruity and herbaceous notes are more subtle to extrapolate from the analysis of arabica coffee varieties, raw chocolate and olive oil.

In any case, all these worlds help build your database, and they are intertwined with each other.

My obsession would instead be to want to taste the same chili pepper grown by different people, with different techniques and different mediums/fertilizers. Unfortunately I haven't had the opportunity to do it yet, being an isolated grower here, but having experimented with it on other vegetables, I would be curious to see if this is also true for peppers. I grow ecologically (good soil, only water, no fertilizers, no pesticides) with the aim of having clean flavors.
 
I like them all in their own way and it's only by growing them, or friends giving me some and tasting that I get it.
It's been a great experience year after year to include a few strains in the mix I've never tried before just for the surprise of the aroma, taste, look, and of course heat.
Worth the experience.
 
Totally get the struggle with deciphering those pod flavor descriptions! It's like learning a new language. But once you start tasting, it all starts to click. Had my own "grassy" moment with Mustard Naga, and that Bengle Naga's bubblegum flavor sounds like a delight.
 
It's crazy, my taste buds suck, but there are people out there that insure their taste buds with million dollar insurance policies lol.

Cheers!
 
Last edited:
Is it my madness, or does honey have a nuance in its flavor that is reminiscent of the floral flavor of Chinense? Now that I think about it, I have to try making spicy honey...I also notice that the flavor of the fresh cheese has Chinese nuances 😂
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top