My First Superhot Experience

[TRM]

I ate my first superhot pepper today, the Naga Morich. My interest in peppers began a few months ago and since then I've eaten hotter and hotter peppers to improve my tolerance. This one may have been a bit overboard but what an experience! A slow building fire that burned up my throat and into my entire mouth before settling all over my tongue. The massive endorphin rush that followed definitely made the experience worth it.

The one thing that did not impress me was the taste. At first it was slightly sweet and tangy but quickly degenerated into a bitter earthy taste. As a side question, does this pepper work well for cooking, and if so what dishes does it complement best?
 

 

[cmpman1974]

Doesn't look like a Naga Morich to me.  Probably not that high of a heat level compared to the real thing. 
 
Chris
 

 

[TRM]

I've eaten Caribbean Habs, Red Fataliis, and Trinidad Scorpions, and none of these came close to this one. Everything I've researched, from the area it's located, the size, appearance, taste, and heat, it matches perfectly. If you look up pictures of the Naga Morich you will see that it has a wide variety of shapes (one of my research sources mentioned this) and many of them look nearly identical to mine. The Dorset Naga looks even closer, but with that being just a variety of Naga Morich I though I would stick with the more generic identification.

 

[Ruid]

Someone get this man a chocolate bhutlah!

 

[SmokenFire]

Good on ya TRM.  No one forgets their first super hot.  Mine was a trinidad scorpion.  I will always remember how cool to the touch the kitchen floor was and the thoughts of imminent death...

 

[Ruid]

The Reaper YouTube craze got me and I didn't even have internet outside of the phone. No one else was willing to eat one and the stipulation was they got to record it.

 

[wrinklenuts]

Naga Morich's are brutal to me. They have a bad floral flavor though.

 

[Harry_Dangler]

Someone get this man a chocolate bhutlah!

Oh My God!  I'm happy mine didn't germinate this year. 

 

[BlackFatalii]

 
The one thing that did not impress me was the taste. At first it was slightly sweet and tangy but quickly degenerated into a bitter earthy taste. As a side question, does this pepper work well for cooking, and if so what dishes does it complement best?
 

 
If you get a bunch of pods, you might consider making them into powder. It seems to me that unpleasant flavors, such as floral or bitter tastes, tend to go away or at least are toned down in powder form. Powder also stores well, and is very convenient to use in cooking.
 
 

Someone get this man a chocolate bhutlah!

 
Or a Brown Moruga! 

 

[Bicycle808]

Doesn't look like a Naga Morich to me.  Probably not that high of a heat level compared to the real thing. 
 
Chris
 

I agree. The texture on the pod pictured in the OP didn't look like Naga Morich at all. Too smooth.

I like Nagas in sauces. Dried and powdered or, even better, smoked and powdered. I've also used them in stirfries that call for some heat. My most common use for them is probably in an omelet.

 

[Mister_Al]

My first superhot was a Butch T. Scorpion--what an experience!

 

[Ruid]

Oh My God!  I'm happy mine didn't germinate this year. 

Ever had one?

 

[Chorizo857_62J]

My Daughter's boyfriend gave me a trinidad scorpion plant from a local farmer's market.  It is now about 18-in. tall, and buds are starting to show up.  Can't wait for pods!  The local box store garden section is touting "Carolina Reapers", but they look different than the photos I see elsewhere (no tails).  These are corporately grown by a major plant vendor, so I suspect they crossed it to distinguish it from the original founder's product.  They are producing prolifically, but we'll see what we end up with.

 

[Harry_Dangler]

Mine was a Naga Morich as well.  A more prototypical pheno. A guy from my work brought me a bag of peppers he said he grew from some seed he ordered from the UK.  At first glance I knew this was something different.  He said they were way too hot for him.  I pretty much knew they were Naga Morich and handled them with care  but couldn't resist the temptation.  After I recovered I swore I would be careful.  The next morning I come to work and this guy has put a shopping bag full of these on a table in the break room with a sign "free, help yourself".  I told him he needed to put a warning on them.  He wouldn't do it.  I took them all and made powder.  Thankfully nobody got hurt.

 

[Ruid]

You should have left a few for potential workplace hilarity. Once you have pods, you still can. Just be nice and put a gallon of milk in the break room fridge.

 

[Harry_Dangler]

Ever had one?

Yes .... I've grown them and I've eaten half a fresh pod (this was way too much for me) and I will never do it again.  The flavor to me was unpleasant and the heat was horrific.  The day I did this I became panic stricken and I was close to dialing 911.  Mrs. Dangler (after bouts of laughter and lecture) was able to get me to the point of semi consciousness and I pulled through.
 
Mixed with other super hots in powder, for me it's tolerable.  
 
I saved seeds but I suspect they're too old now.  I tried to germinate 4 this spring and got nothing.  Didn't re-try after Mrs. Dangler reviewed the grow list I mistakenly left out and questioned my ability to determine good from bad.   
 
To each his own personal preference.  Some folks might love it ...... I did not.
 
Your experience?

 

[Ruid]

The flavor is good in food. I diced one on a chicken patty sandwich and enjoyed it. The burn left me in awe.

It's not a good flavor by itself though. Either way, I don't need Guinness to tell me it's hotter than Reapers because my mouth already did. Far as I know, CB is the hottest out there.

 

[TRM]

I agree. The texture on the pod pictured in the OP didn't look like Naga Morich at all. Too smooth.
 

I did have more peppers that were much more wrinkled, but being a photographer I wanted to get a good shot of the sun hitting it. The more gnarly ones don't look as good in that lighting.
 
Looked up pictures of the Morich and yes it does generally have a more pimpled skin (there are a few notable exceptions, but I digress).  Also looked up the Dorset Naga and many of those pictures had little to no wrinkling at all. Of course we all know the Dorset Naga is just a subspecies of the Morich, and are roughly equal in taste/heat, which leads me to question if there is any real difference at all besides general appearance?
 
It still may not be a Naga Morich/Dorset, but whatever it was it was freakin' hot and tasted just like what most folks describe the Nagas tasting like. The more gnarly one (not pictured) was well over a million scoville units easily, and put me on the floor, while the one pictures above wasn't quite as hot but still reached roughly a million. Either way, one heck of a pepper!

 

[Harry_Dangler]

The flavor is good in food. I diced one on a chicken patty sandwich and enjoyed it. The burn left me in awe.

It's not a good flavor by itself though. Either way, I don't need Guinness to tell me it's hotter than Reapers because my mouth already did. Far as I know, CB is the hottest out there.

Totally with you on the heat aspect.  CB is the hottest pepper I have ever tried.  

 

[Datil]

Doesn't look like a Naga Morich to me.

 
+1
 
Here's a couple Naga M. shots from back in the day (awful image quality LOL), mine are not pointy like Chris pods but they're always bumpy (i've grown loads of naga/bhuts):
 

 

 
There's a lot of hybridization happening with open pollinated seeds saving and exchanging, nothing wrong on your part OP.
I bet yours are really hot anyway.
I disagree on the flavor, to me naga/bhuts are the best tasting chinenses.
 
Best
 
Datil