amouageman said:
Hi,
I just bought 10 seeds of Naga Jolokia.
Anybody familiar?
Naga Jolokia chilli seeds native to the district of Assam, India. This pepper has been measured at 855,000 scoville units as reported by S.C. Das, Deputy Director of the Defence Research Laboratory located in Tezpur, India. When compared to the Red Savina� Habanero which was officially measured at 577,000 scoville units, the Naga Jolokiai is even HOTTER at a scorching 855,000 scoville units!
Is this for real?
Thanks from a new, novice pepperhead.
Amouageman
Now I'm wondering where you got the seeds.
Everything that Defcon said is true. Let's say the Tezpur really does clock an average so far above the red sav hab that it can indeed hit 850K... That would be growing in India. Here in North America, the conditions would be so different as to alter the ability for potency of the pepper.
Add to that the fact that the famous Tezpur pepper we have been trying to get our hands on, according to our research is under lock and key and is being protected by the Military because it's so potent as to be dangerous. Whose military, is still to be discovered and even so, we haven't been able to get our hands on the actual pepper, nevermind the famed seeds.
That said.
I personally think the existence of this famed Tezpur is a hoax and until someone HPLC tests them to show hotter than the red sav hab, the red sav hab, in my mind will hold the record. (Bearing in mind of course that ANY breed of hab, chocolate habs, goat peppers, etc, stands the chance of clocking higher than the red sav hab. Why? Because it's a chinense and they don't have a set scoville rating, they have a scale into which they will mostly fall and even then, the pepper's potency will differ from pepper to pepper even on the same bush.
Now, from what I have been able to find out, the Naga Jolokia is certainly an extremely hot pepper, but the articles that claim its existence say that it's a Capsicum frutescens and as such, couldn't possibly be hotter than a chinense (the red sav hab) Frutescens are essentially cayennes. And, there is just no conceivable way that a cayenne could possibly be hotter than a red sav hab. None. Another variety of chinense I could see, but not a frutescens, it just doesn't seem possible.
Fwiw, Chile Pepper Magazine has published several articles about the Naga Jolokia and the claims that had been published about it at that time, and they agree with me about the variety of pepper. The article series goes on to say that the pepper was probably misclassed and it wasn't really a frutescens as claimed in the article, but a chinense, which would put it in the same class as a red sav hab. Making it possible for the pepper to be at least as hot or even hotter than a red sav hab. BUT...
As stated in the article... if it really is 850,000 scovilles, bring it on. Let's put these peppers to the test. The Pope of Peppers didn't buy it then, I don't buy it now.
Personally, I really hope you didn't pay extra for the seeds, it sounds like a scam to me. And if I'm wrong... which I don't think I am, hook me up with some cuttings of the highest yielding plant that grows.
T... Professional chilihead.