[CH] Assistance identifying unbelievably hot pepper
Dan Cole (dcole@roanoke.infi.net)
Thu, 20 Aug 1998 11:09:53 -0400
My peppers have just begun to ripen, so I took a couple on vacation with
me. They look like habaneros (like little pumpkins) except rather than
having a rounded bottom they end pointed and are red not orange. They are
approx. 1 and 1/2 inches tall and 3/4 to 1 inch in diameter and matured
from a light green to a bright red (as red as cherry peppers). From the
description (and by looking in the CH picture archive) I suspect these are
either goat peppers or Red Savinas. The guy I bought the seedlings from
only described them as "Carribean Hot Peppers", but I don't know that he
knew what he was talking about.
As a demonstration of their heat, I cut open and cored one and sliced
approx 1/20th of a pepper off and ate it raw. Now I'm not in the higher
ranks of CH'edness (I don't pop habaneros whole), but I think I have a
relatively high threshold of heat, but this little bit totally swamped my
defenses. I immedately became flushed and started to sweat, I gulped down a
large mug of water and another one of milk in about 3 seconds, but was
still in unbelievable pain. After my acrobatics, my girlfriend and her
father sampled the pepper, each having about a third of what I had tasted,
and both suffered similar reactions. I had had 1 glass of wine before the
pepper, but the rest of the evening, I felt as if I had finished the bottle
myself. Good ole' endorphins.
So, ladies and gentlemen, what do I have slowly maturing in my garden?
Dan Cole
Roanoke, VA
'I don't think I saw El Grande, but his handmaidens sure are beautiful."