chinense The Orange Habanero Pepper

SavinaRed

SavinaRed

I'm hearing allot of people lately say how much they hate the taste of the orange Hab. Now for me I really don't much care for eating any pepper hotter than a hab just for kicks or because I like the pain it gives my mouth. But one thing I can say about the go to orange hab is that it makes a really good tasting sauce and when they are smoked and dehydrated and used whole,halved or ground into pepper they are really good IMHO. 
 
I really don't like the taste of oregano by itself but when I use it in my sauces and recipes I can't do with out that spice. I'm sure there are many other examples I could think of and another one comes to mind. I had one of my kids friends over  who told me how much he hates pineapple and we were tasting a bunch of different sauces that I had made. So I sneak in one that I made with pineapple, it was a moruga sauce and he absolutely loved this sauce and said it was the best tasting one of all the different ones I had made. So when I told him the only fruit I used in that sauce was pineapple he couldn't believe it lol. I've had the same experience with cilantro with people who say they hate it but when they taste my tomatillo sauce they love it . 
 
So I guess what I'm trying to convey here is just because you don't like an orange hab by itself doesn't mean that its not good tasting used in a recipe with other ingredients.
 
Thoughts ?
 
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         :onfire:
 
The only orange habaneros i've tried are the ones purchased from a grocery store. Before orange habs, there were both red and yellow 'scotch bonnets' that were quite tasty -- they had fruity/citrusy taste, with a distinct hardwood-smoke flavor, despite being fresh, not smoked.
About 10-15 years ago those 'scotch bonnets' (they weren't the MoA bonnet, they looked like habs) were replaced by orange habs at every produce counter. The orange habs had a bitter/metallic/salty taint to them that suggests the plants were heavily over-fertilized during cultivation. They also spoiled much more rapidly, strongly suggesting too much nitrogen in the fertilizer.
Since that day, the orange habs provided by grocery stores persist in tasting just that way. In a soup or stew, they're not bad. If something sweet or tangy is included, it can nullify that chemical taint to them.

If an orange hab were grown organically, maybe they'd be much nicer. The one use i found for them was rather nice: i minced them in a small botttle vinegar with lemon juice and zest. It was good on fish-n'-chips, and the bitterness was masked by the strong vinegar and lemon flavors.
 
     I usted to tolerate the flavor of orange habs back when that was all I could get (hotter than a serrano) at the store. I didn't really like the flavor, but they were pretty hot. The ones I have grown (organically, properly fertilized) still had that disagreeable, acrid, garbage-funk flavor, just more pronounced. 
     And it's not just the flavor of them on their own. I tried to cook with them and they just made things taste off. Because of this, I used to just assume that all orange habs were junk. Then I germinated some seed I picked up from Burpee labeled orange habanero. They turned out to be Caribbean red habs and my opinion of habaneros changed fast! Sweeter, fruitier, no acrid bitterness, no perfumey stank... I can't believe these two varieties are so closely related! 
 
The orange hab is the pepper that started my love of peppers. All others were just boring in my limited experience (cayenne, tabasco). The first time I tasted one was from a guy at work who brought a bag that he harvested from home.
 
it's the pepper that got me wanting to grow, and it's still one of my go to favorites. I think some people shun it these days because, dare I say, there are pepper snobs just as there are wine snobs. I mean, why grow run of the mill habs when you can get a garden full of the latest, trendiest peppers? Of course, I'm sure there are just as many who simply don't like the flavor, which to me is a classic c. chinense flavor....;. they all kinda taste like that, to some degree, IMO.
 
I do agree that they are best cooked in with meals, sauces, and salsas. To this day I get people asking me to make some of my habanero fire roasted salsa that I started a few years back. I couldn't provide any last year because I didn't grow them. I'm back on them this year though!
 
And I can't even begin to describe how a handful of them enhance the flavor of a crawfish boil!!! Still, I say to each their own. If they don't like it, then they just don't like it.
 
I grew Burning Bush Habanero last year I hated it but it was good for salsa & pepper Jelly.
I did not find it slightly sweet but fruity & very floral with nasty after taste it did produce lots of pods .
I almost did not grow any habaneros because of this variety but it just did not seem right so now I got Galapagos Red Habanero & Black Habanero going in my second phase :dance:  :fireball:  :onfire:  :high:  .
 
 
SavinaRed, I agree completely with you!
Phil said:
The orange hab is the pepper that started my love of peppers.
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I could say almost the same. I was already in love with hot peppers, but "low level heat" so to say, because didn't had any really hot. Orange habanero was my first love in "middle class", when I met them in my short visit to Mexico. Instant fall in love with them, when I saw them on a Walmart in San Luis Potosi. My first experience when I learned that eating them with bare hand and pee later is not the best idea. A smell that reminds me my sockets when I was in the army, after 3 days of wearing. But, oh, nice pepper! As SavinaRed say about cilantro, you can like the taste of them, or not, and I remember now the durian (never ate one, but just got some durian toffee, and I can say I would like to try a fruit too). And can't explain you the joy when next year they grew in my garden, and when I shared them with others.
So, in few words, yes, I like the orange habs, and the only reason I don't grow them in this season is lack of place - all the peppers I grow now are for the first time in my garden, never grew them before.
 
I agree. Love habs but have fresh varieties real cheep here. Been a few years since I've even been excited over a hab(got mad at my dad in the 60's for not ordering them-they were the latest craze in the seed store).
 
The ones from the store are way different then the ones from my garden. That being said. The store bought ones I have used in pickling which is not bad. Ive made salsa with them accompanied with some sort of other pepper for flavor. As far as eating them raw with a meal, I'll go for the garden. I still owe it all to the Orange Hab for my pursuit for something hotter. They do make a good sauce. Gotta love the Red Savina too. Oh wait there it is in my profile pic. LOL. Good topic
 
For many the orange hab is the 'gateway pepper' and then they discover the rabbit hole does indeed go quite a bit deeper.  ;)
 
But!  Lost in translation along the way is that the regular old orange hab has penetrated our country to the point where you can get them in small towns throughout the country and at most times of the year.  
 
Ya they taste 'floral-y' and have that classic chinense taste which I think you like or you don't most of the time, but there are few peppers I'd rather have when looking to bump up a sauce or if I want to make ceviche or a nice powder blend with some kick.  
 
Orange habs might be the janitors of the hot pepper campus, but damn it they have their place!!  lol  
 
orange habs are available year round in my locale. but they are not the orange habs of several years ago that were seasonal.
 
these habs are lighter in colour, less flavour, less heat and thin walled, other than snacking on or for a quick fresh salsa, they don't make a nice powder - lacking in heat.
 
i saved the seeds and grew them out last year. they grew fast, they flowered fast and produced fruit fast and were productive most season. i think i started them in april, flowered by july and was eating fruit in august and large pods too.
 
i like the flavour of the older, richer variety and never compare them to other habs as i believe their flavour sets them apart.
 
I like orange habs, man. I also eat them straight off the vine. That's about my heat limit [for now!]. I do enjoy their flavor. Straight and cooked within a dish. Honestly though I just figured that opinion would change / evolve. So many veterans here have different sentiments. Truth is I am totally green. This will be my first year really venturing outside the typical arsenal of peppers found at nurseries and Home Depot and the like. So my exposure has been very limited. So far my favorite is Thai Dragon and Caribbean Red. I wouldn't mind if later my opinion is "Orange habanero!? Gross! I've had many much better!" :)
 
That said, I completely agree with the notion how something tastes isolated to itself, and how it works in a complex dish or sauce, are totally different beasts.
 
Definitely my "gateway" pepper too. Along with jalapeño, the orange hab was the first pepper I grew from starts at the big box store many years ago. I don't grow them anymore simply because there's too much competition for space. The do make a decent sauce and are darn prolific. For a while I would just grow one plant for old time sake - and may again.
 
My gateway pepper was definitely the thai. As a result of working at a thai restaurant and subsequently always attempting to convince the staff and cooks at various thai restaurants that I really wanted "thai hot' or hotter in my dish ^_^
 
They first come across as fruity to me, but then leave an aftertaste that makes me think of Lysol, so definitely not one of my go-go pods. That said, if you mix them with the right other things, they can be ok or even good. They did not go well roasted on a hamburger, IMO, as they still had that Lysol-like aftertaste.
 
As an expirement in seed vialblity, I purchased a couple orange habs at a local market.  Out of a 100 or so seeds, I finaly got one plant to grow. These things must be irradiated don't ya think?   Plenty germinated, but stayed tiny tiny and never grew worth a dam... Only one made it.   I swear, they were so tiny and didn't grow at all they had to have been nuked or sumpin..    Is it possible they irradiate them for health concerns and to also "sterllize" the seeds to protect the vendors?   Deep Thoughts...... oops gotta run, here come the vendor police...
 
The grocery store habs I have had seemed to have no flavor other than heat.  Grow in organic soil and they are one of my favorites for general cooking.  There is a bag of dried pods near my stove at all times.  They are also one of our best sellers when selling in person, so i know lots of folk like them.

Streamer, there are many reasons grocery store peppers do not often yield good viable seeds.  First could be variety.  Some hybrids have great fruit but crap poor seed germination rates.  Next, retardants intended to keep them fresh.  Not sure if they use them on peppers, but I know that potato are often dosed to prevent them from growing eyes so fast.  Then there's waxes and other things to make them all perty that might have something to do with it.  Finally, what you mentioned about irradiation.  I -think- much of the food that is imported to the US is irradiated to prevent pests from migrating.

Considering how cheap generic hab seeds are, i can not imagine anyone putting effort into using terminator seed tech on the things.
 
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