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sampling seriously hot peppers every Monday in Lakeland

I wanted to let all the people who have been watching this thread, that I have changed the title. from what I am hearing about all the trouble with the Carolina Reaper, I don't even want to advertise that name any more, so I have removed it from the title and have changed it so it reflects what we do each and every Monday night, as opposed to what we were doing that one night in particular. I'll have a new one for sure next Tuesday. We will be trying a new pepper, although it isn't a super hot. Tom
 
We had a pretty good hot pepper night last night. We had 9 men and 6 women all eating hot pepper materials of all kinds. There are enough people who are interested in what we do so I will add another dimension to the report. I'm only going to post this once, probably, so you can go back to this link and see if there are any new pictures. For those who are on Facebook, here is a link:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Yellow-Pepper-Sauce/192907240858973

The bartender there brings us most of the hot peppers during the year and I take up the slack if something happens to his. Others will bring in a few here and there when they have something interesting to try. He makes a yellow sauce that is yellow 7 pod based. He is working on the labeling and making it all legit, but in the mean time, he already put up a Facebook page. If you look at the recent picture that was posted last night, that was the peppers we cut up and used for our mixed basket. They fry these for us and ad jalapenos and onions. You can see there, from a week ago, or two weeks ago what the mixed basket usually looks like.
Anyway, the main test was checking out the White Habanero. I won an auction here about a year ago with 26 different kinds of pepper powder and one of them was white habanero powder. My good friend got that pack and he loved it, so I grew out a few plants for him and had my first fresh crop of about 10 of them. They certainly we not super hots, so they were a bit of a let down compared to some of our other tests, but we didn't expect a lot. They seem to be about 1/3 of the heat of a habanero. The taste is very subtle. One person thought it had a hint of banana to it, but I didn't taste that. The heat reached a certain level by a minute or so, but it did hold on pretty good for about 8 to 10 minutes. It would be worth growing. It really does put out a bunch of little peppers at a time, but now I have a better understanding of what it took just to make the 1 ounce of powder I got. You can see the white habs in the front of the plate of peppers in the most recent picture on that Facebook page.
One interesting thing we did by accident. The bartender took the tail off a Carolina Reaper and ate it. This one at least, was NOT hot at all. It was sweet! It also had a vewry pleasant taste. We then cut little pieces off the end of that pepper to the point where it stopped being sweet and had about a quarter of the expected heat. The taste really came out better than I have ever tried. So, you all who have those, try just the ends of the tails and see if they are sweet for you too! Tom
 
Well, I haven't had a report for a while, nor have I posted on the forum lately. A few weeks ago I got a really bad flu that gave me a high temperature and the kind of flu that makes your whole body hurt like hell. I had it for a good 12 days and still haven't been out to work with my plants out in the heat for a long period of time. I DID however go to hot pepper night this recent Monday.
We tested my first Jay's Peach Ghost Scorpion. The taste was very different, but to me, it was very weak and didn't jump out at you at all. The pepper looks pretty cool, but I'm not sure what people would use this one for except for the novelty. The heat was interesting though. When you first tasted it, the heat was about as weak as the taste, but then, it started to build up. I have to say, I think this time release heat is probably the longest build up I have seen in any hot pepper. It almost took a whoile minute to really hit you and then after it did, everyone was saying, how long is this going to last? It lasted a long time, thats for sure. The highest level wasn't like a scorpion or a brain strain, but it was still very hot. I'm not sure if I'm going to grow a bunch of these, but it was fun to try it out.
I finally produced my first 7 pod Primo and we compared it to one of my better looking Reapers that was ready at the same time. I thought those other primos I bought were hot, this one was ridiculous! We first tried pieces that may have been about a cm2 and those things lit everyone up. The bartender was turning all red looking and sweating and fanning himself. That thing trashed me too. For sure, this one pepper is the hottest pepper I have ever tried. The taste was REALLY great too. Very strong taste and it was good, when you got past all that heat. the reaper tasted flat compared to this primo. Now I can say for sure that in a side by side growing test, the primo is WAY hotter than the reaper, for me. I love the taste and I love the heat, which, I know sounds crazy, but what can I say? I have about 20 plants producing so far (and another 20 behind those) and every single plant has consistant looking pods. I am loving these things. I can see why Dale burned his reaper plants if he did it because the pods were inconsistant and not because of a threat of lawsuit, which I don't know either way, but I can see him not wanting to waste his time and money growing something that just doesn't stand up to the quality of the primo.. I haven't tried any of these new lavas and that kind of thing, so I'm sure there is something out there that may top these primos, but its really going to be a hard thing to do. Anyone who hasn't tried a primo yet, go get you some! Tom
 
I haven't had a Reaper yet, but I too can attest to the hotness of Primos.  They are certainly a top tier heat producing pepper.  They have a good flavor too.  Not as sweet as I would like, but certainly no offputting flavors in my opinion.
 
I'm sorry I didn't get back on Tuesday, but it is a good thing because I have had a chance to try the new pepper a few times since hot pepper night.
First of all I want to thank Judy for sending me some 7 Pod Lavas with some other peppers I got from her.
I got all my peppers on Thursday so I had quite a few days before Monday, and you just can't wait can you? Well, I cheated and tried a sliver along with the restaurant owner of ChamPinos (who uses my peppers for his Inferno wing sauce) when I brought one to show him when my wife and I went to eat out on Friday. I at least knew how hot it was which gave me a good idea on what to compare it with for our Monday night testing. I also had enough time to make most of them into powder, which I brought to BDS Mongolian Grill to try out on my stir fry.
OK for hot pepper night. First of all, you can see the lava we tried out on the facebook page that I linked to a few posts up. Its worth looking at because these lavas are monsters. I sell my powders in the 2 ounce condiment containers that most restaurants have available to put things in. It can take as many as 40 Primos to fill one of these up and 7 of these lavas half filled one of the containers.
I brought for comparison, the 7 pod Lava and a Red Brain Strain, which came from seed from Judy originally anyway. We only had 7 people trying these that evening. Sometimes the turnout is a little slack and sometimes the place is jammed out. The bar was full, but 3 couples didn't want any part of really hot peppers. We compared the powders first. I apparently didn't agree with the crowd this time. I liked the taste of the Brain Strain better, but literally, everyone else prefered the Lava in taste and they said the heat was more with the Lava. We all tried the two as smaller fresh pieces.
The small pieces we tried were more unusual than most every other pepper. When people first tried the piece, there was hardly any heat to it and people even had a chance to say, thats not all that hot, but then... These had a longer time release heat even compared to the Jay's Peach Ghost Scorpions we tried a few weeks ago. The heat just kept building and stayed a really long time. I think the heat was building for a good 2 minutes. The Brain Strain after about 10 seconds was REALLY hot, but then it leveled off quicker than the 7 pod Lava. To me, that night, I still prefered the Brain Strain in taste. So, everyone but me thought the Lava tasted better and was hotter. So that is the finding but I didn't agree with everyone else.
OK, now it has been a few days and I have tried my Lava powder at home, a Mexican restaurant, an Italian restaurant, and at at BDs. I also tried a larger piece than the samples we passed around on Monday.
This one is funny, the larger the amount, the faster it is hot. Apparently, the smaller pieces just didn't have enough materiaal to have the more instant burn, especially compared to the guys who are eating the whole thing, which is truly massive compared to brains and scorpions. The powder is growing on me. In my chili rellenos, it had a good solid red taste, really good heat, but it didn't over power the food. I like the Brain Strain for flavor, but it over powers some foods I use it on, which is alright I guess. The Primo powder I make is the same way. It has a much stronger taste to it but the heat can be over powering and the flavor stands out in food as opposed to just having a good heat and tasting what you bought.
I think the 7 Pod Lava is going to be a really good pepper to grow and to eat. When you try a sample of fresh pepper, or powder by itself, all you taste is the pepper, but how often are you really doing this? What is more important in the long run is what does it taste like in your food or in a sauce? I have to say, I'm liking these more each day and they are well worth trying in the future. Just with 7 peppers, I have enough powder to last me a few months. Tom
 
We had an average turnout this Monday night, but we had an unusual taste test this time around. I brought in my first Peach Bhut Jolokia pod produced from seeds provided by our friend Joe and the Jay's Peach Ghost Scorpion. We have never had such a varied opinion on which of the two to compare where hotter, tasted better, and all that kind of thing.
I guess I should start with what I thought about each of them. FIrst, they look just about the same. The Peach Bhut even had a little tail on it like the Jay's pepper. We started with what we had never tried before the Peach Bhut Jolokia. The heat hit within a few seconds and was very consistant for a few minutes. The taste was fairly strong for a peach pod. The heat isn't at a level like the Scorpions or anything worse than that, they weren't even as hot as a good hot, red Bhut. The heat held on for a while, but within 10 minutes, I was ready to try the next sample. The Jay's pepper was very much like the one we had taste tested a few weeks back. When you first tasted the Jay's pepper, it wasn't very hot at all, but it did give you a better chance at tasting it, where the regular peach bhut was hot right away and didn't give you as much of a chance to taste the real taste of just the pepper. The Jay's pepper has a bit of a watered down taste, but in a way, that isn't all that bad. It is a milder taste and opposed to a slightly harsh taste as you get with the regular peach bhut. The heat of The Jay's pepper builds up though and grows to a level that exceeeded the regular peach bhut. The heat lasted a lot longer on the Jay's pepper once it got up to top level.
The big question was which one everyone liked better, and that is where everyone was mixed. For all the reasons I mentioned, probably right down the middle, half the people prefered one and the other half prefered the other. The race was pretty close, but for me, I think the Jay's Peach Ghost Scorpion edged out the Peach Bhut Jolokia by a slim margin, but as I said, everyone had different opinions. That's whats great about having a hot pepper night with lots of people trying the same things. Everyone has their own perspective on the same things.
We thought about what kind of ingredients would you use to make the best sauce using either of these peppers. Both have a unique tast that I'm not used to tasting with yellows and reds. Maybe using peaches, but also, maybe one of the more unusual mangos might be a good way to go. Anybody have any ideas on this? Tom
 
Anyone near the Lakeland Florida area is invited to our weekly "hot pepper night" at the local Chilis on 98 north. I usually get there about 8pm. We usually have at least 8 different hot peppers there each week that can be sampled and later eaten. Sometimes someone will bring a hot sauce to try out. Sometimes, when someone brings in as new pepper nobody had tried yet, we will sample that, or compare it with another pepper.
I'm mentioning this because I will be bringing a full array of hot peppers this Monday, but will also be bringing two peppers nobody there has tried yet. I just got some chocolate Morugas from Judy and we will probably compare these with Doughlahs for taste and heat. I also got in some huge, bumpy looking Bhutlahs, which some people say are hotter than reapers. We will either compare those with some reapers, or maybe with 7 pod Primos, since the whole group voted that Primos are 10% hotter than reapers. It should be fun and many people should get their faces burned off, which is always entertaining :-) I will post the results of our tests in this thread when I have time after Monday, but you are always invited to come out and enjoy eating hot peppers, hot drinks, and food with us. Tom
 
My father-in-law lives in Lakeland and we are due to go visit him again soon. Since it's almost 1/2 way around the world we usually stay 2 or 3 weeks just to make it worth the trip. I hope you are still doing this the next time I'm up that way. I would love to sit in with you guys ans enjoy the heat :party:
 
Tell him to come this Monday! When you do come to Lakeland, you need to come out too. You need to come out to my nursery as well and check out all the peppers and pepper plants. I produce all year, but the peppers are best when it is hot outside. Tom
 
Well, we have a new hottest pepper for me! 18 people showed up last night for hot pepper night, but nobody from THP showed up. We tried some new chocolate Moruga scorpions and compared them to 7 pod Douglahs. The choc. Moruga was plain tasting and not impressive at all. The Douglah has a very unique taste and was about 30% hotter tasting.
We compared the new Bhutlah with the Carolina Reaper, and the 7 pod Primo, which is my personal favorite for taste and heat, and the group has already determined is 10% hotter than the reaper. The heat beat both of them by at least 10% and even though it is hard to compare the taste of a red and a chocolate pepper, pretty much everyone said the others tasted plain compared to the Bhutlah. The Bhutlah doesn't have a unique taste like a Douglah, but it is a strong chocolate flavor that is not wimpy. I'll be making Bhutlah powder and we will see what that tastes like. Usually chocolates taste way better as a powder, so we will see. This one has a good chance to be the next hottest pepper, but I know there are other contenders I haven't tried yet.
 
It's been a while since I added something here, but I haven't tried anything new since last year. Well, as many of you may have recently done, I bought a box of chocolate brain strains from Cappy. I brought a nice looking one and a bhutlah to hot pepper night on Monday. Everyone agreed that the chocolate brain strain is one of the best tasting chocolates we have tried. The heat had a bit of a time release heat where you get a really good taste of the pepper for 30 seconds before the burn really hits you, and when it does, it really hits you. It has a rich taste that almost had a little sweetness to it, where peppers like chocolate scorpions are a bit bitter and plain tasting. I had already made powder out of most of the box before Monday, so I brought that too. The powder may be my favorite chocolate powder. Even the powder is pretty dam hot. We later tried a bhutlah, which last year, I thought would be my new favorite for this year. It was also very hot, but the pepper had a slight bitterness compared to the chocolate brain. I'm still going to experiment with many different bhutlah plants, but I have already planted some chocolate brain strain seeds and hopefully, I will be picking my own pods in November. This year will be busier for reports. I'm trying out some new peppers and will bring them all to hot pepper night. New ones include, Aji peach sugar rush, big black mama (BBM), super hot beast, MA Wartryx,7 pot infinity, and of course Aji Jobito, even though it isn't supposed to be hot.
 
I picked up a box as well.
I really liked the flavor and the I was actually able to taste it before the heat hit. My favorite part was the smell, or rather the aroma. I couldn't help but stop and smell each one as I cut them to deseed them.
 
Did you notice that pretty much all the seeds were in the center of the top? My wife got me a cute little device that is like double tweezers that take the tops off of strawberries. It works perfect for taking the tops off of peppers. That thing was perfect for taking out the seeds. Took me less than 5 minutes to do all of them. These were strange peppers. No middle area, just a top filled with seeds and hollow. If it wasn't so dam hot they look like they would be perfect to stuff with something. Even if you filled it with cheese or something to counter the burn, how many of those could you eat? I think my guts would hate me if I ate two of these! I think some sort of smoked cheese or fish dip would be great in these things.
 
OK everyone. I just bought in a good sized box of peppers from Justin and I will have 11 new types of hot peppers to sample this Monday night. Everyone is invited. I get there right around 8 pm. Anyone who may want to come, contact me for details. This may be one of the most interesting hot pepper nights we have had in a couple of years. Tom
 
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