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Ornamental my BUT!!!

So I got these peruvian purples that my wife loves....The plant is about 4 foot tall and is loaded with peppers.. So as I am doing the evening watering I notice several of the peppers have turned red..so I said the hell with ornamental and bit Half of one. Noticing there was an overabundance of seeds I recall making the statement of this sucks..no flesh, really green tasting, ....wait...wait....ohh. damn this is hot as hell..holy crap my face hurts......owwwwwwww.... It was definately the equivalent of rubbing a scotch bonnet across my lips..heat lasted for about 7 minutes.. No flavor but honestly some heat for a dresser pepper. has anyone else ever tried these??
 
Most ornamentals have heat, just not much flavor as they were bred for looks not taste. The Black Pearl is the only ornamental I've tried that has thick flesh and plenty of flavor when ripe.

Ornamental definitely does not mean no heat. :)
 
Yeah i grew about 5 different types of ornimentals last year and they all had good heat but tasted like crap!!!

I think they even put a crappy flavour in food so I didn't bother with them this year. But I do admit they look pretty when set up as a low hedge in summer..
 
Yeah agreed, i tried some either Numex Twilight or a close cousin and it had considerable heat. Tasted like recycled Defcon 1 and 2 though.
 
I've got one my girlfriend wanted when we were at Lowes one day, cuz she felt sorry for it. I was outside one day and popped one in my mouth, and got the shock of my life at the heat, but it tasted like dirt.
 
I know this is an old thread, but I wanted to throw out the Zimbabwe Bird Pepper. It's an ornamental that has both great flavor and heat, or is this not considered an ornamental?
 
I have heard the Chinese 5-color has good flavor for an ornamental, as well. Growing these now and have four small purple pods. Haven't tried one yet.
 
I have Peru Purp, NM Twilight, Chinese 5 color, Black Cuban, Florescent Purp and NM Halloween. I havent tried the Flor Purp yet but the others do pack a burn. I usually dry out the pods and and crush and add to foods when I dont want to drown the food with a pepper taste and want just heat. I usually sell the ornamentals at the farmers market as they are extremely easy to grow and appeal to the eye. The Flor Purps are right now my cross polinators as these plants have the coolest foliage and I would like to see what damage I can do by using them to pollinate my other plants especially my Chinenses.
 
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