Updates. I finally got ripe pods from each of the 3 varieties I grew. I have been eating Hot Rods like wild; they really are earlier than the other 2, by far. But yeah I plucked a few red ones to represent each plant, and took the ol' Pepsi Challenge at the Tacqueria y Cantina with some of my homeboys while we waited for our Chimi Changas.
I got all my Serrano seeds from CCN. The ones they labelled simply as "Serrano," which I've been calling "generic," were way way juicier than the Hot Rods. I was a little bit surprised. They were pretty hot right up front, but not as hot as the Hot Rods and they had a lot more sweetness. We really liked the flavor, overall.
Tried the Tampiqueño next. I only had one ripe pod from the Tampiqueño plants, so we had to cut it up. I was again blown away by the juiciness of this thing compared to the Hot Rod, so I guess it's more like the Hot Rods are less juicy b/c the Tampiqueño and the generic Serrano were both really juicy. The Tampiqueño was tasty, but way less spicy than the other two. I wish I had taken more careful note of the flavor, but I remember thinking it tasted a whole lot like the generic Serrano...
We finished up with Hot Rods. Back-to-back-to-back, the Hot Rod was obviously and significantly hotter than the other 2. I've been thinking that the Hot Rods taste really apple-ish and when I brought this up to the fellas, they wholeheartedly agreed. Less like an apple, and more like apple juice. The Hot Rod is often marketed as an F1 hybrid; I'm not sure what the parent varieties are, but the Hot Rod plants look a lot like the other Serrano plants (less fuzzy though) and the Hot Rod pods look almost identical to the Tampiqueño pods. ( The generic Serranos are a bit thicker--girthier, relative to length, than the other two.) All three varieties' pods show some corking, but the Hot Rods are the corkin'est. But the difference between the Hot Rod-- the alleged hybrid-- and the others becomes apparent at first bite. Hot Rods lack that burst of chile juice, and the apple juice flavor is absent in the other Serranos I grew.... The Hot Rods are more productive and far earlier than the other two types, as advertised.
Overall, we agreed that, based on this early wave of pods, the generic Serranos were the tastiest. Similar to the Tampiqueño jawn, but more depth of flavor and a more entertaining heat level. However, from a growing standpoint, the Hot Rods are real pod factories, and they produced and ripened weeks before the other two. That's gotta count for something... The Tampiqueño plants are the prettiest...the bushiest, just crazy-hot looking plants and I love how they grow. I am just underwhelmed by the number of pods so far.
I'm going to keep on over-analyzing this shit before I pick an ultimate semi-finalist out of the three.
I got all my Serrano seeds from CCN. The ones they labelled simply as "Serrano," which I've been calling "generic," were way way juicier than the Hot Rods. I was a little bit surprised. They were pretty hot right up front, but not as hot as the Hot Rods and they had a lot more sweetness. We really liked the flavor, overall.
Tried the Tampiqueño next. I only had one ripe pod from the Tampiqueño plants, so we had to cut it up. I was again blown away by the juiciness of this thing compared to the Hot Rod, so I guess it's more like the Hot Rods are less juicy b/c the Tampiqueño and the generic Serrano were both really juicy. The Tampiqueño was tasty, but way less spicy than the other two. I wish I had taken more careful note of the flavor, but I remember thinking it tasted a whole lot like the generic Serrano...
We finished up with Hot Rods. Back-to-back-to-back, the Hot Rod was obviously and significantly hotter than the other 2. I've been thinking that the Hot Rods taste really apple-ish and when I brought this up to the fellas, they wholeheartedly agreed. Less like an apple, and more like apple juice. The Hot Rod is often marketed as an F1 hybrid; I'm not sure what the parent varieties are, but the Hot Rod plants look a lot like the other Serrano plants (less fuzzy though) and the Hot Rod pods look almost identical to the Tampiqueño pods. ( The generic Serranos are a bit thicker--girthier, relative to length, than the other two.) All three varieties' pods show some corking, but the Hot Rods are the corkin'est. But the difference between the Hot Rod-- the alleged hybrid-- and the others becomes apparent at first bite. Hot Rods lack that burst of chile juice, and the apple juice flavor is absent in the other Serranos I grew.... The Hot Rods are more productive and far earlier than the other two types, as advertised.
Overall, we agreed that, based on this early wave of pods, the generic Serranos were the tastiest. Similar to the Tampiqueño jawn, but more depth of flavor and a more entertaining heat level. However, from a growing standpoint, the Hot Rods are real pod factories, and they produced and ripened weeks before the other two. That's gotta count for something... The Tampiqueño plants are the prettiest...the bushiest, just crazy-hot looking plants and I love how they grow. I am just underwhelmed by the number of pods so far.
I'm going to keep on over-analyzing this shit before I pick an ultimate semi-finalist out of the three.