Scoville scale

[Jay-ell]

Re ridiculously hot chilli eaters.

Do you whip your selves with nettles as well ?

Jimmy

Just before breaking the ice on the North Sea to go for a dip

[Aberdeenplotter]

I'm not normally guilty of tangentisation but would you believe that Dundee Food and Flower Festival up till Last year had a class for the best chilli by taste. There were all sorts entered including Scotch Bonnets. I was one of two judges and we refused to taste the Chillies on health and safety grounds. The class has been deleted this year.

We did cut each chilli and judged on quality and appearance. Apart from the safety aspect though, how could anyone judge by taste when one's pallete would be destroyed after tasting the first one?

ermhhhh, tangentisation over

[rary]

I dont grow hot peppers as I prefer to taste my food
I dont grow sweet pepper either
though I did get some seeds from Thelma and will have a crop this year

[Jay-ell]

I dont grow hot peppers as I prefer to taste my food
I dont grow sweet pepper either
though I did get some seeds from Thelma and will have a crop this year

Habaneros have a lovely fruity flavour - just before they blow your head off.

Try Trinidad Perfume which supposedly has the fruity taste but not the heat (if I can get the seeds to grow I'll try it next year)

[Chris11]

Try Trinidad Perfume which supposedly has the fruity taste but not the heat (if I can get the seeds to grow I'll try it next year)

There are a number of varieties now with the C.chinense flavour, but with little heat.

Pink Habanero and Numex Suave Orange are two more like that.

[Chris11]

Bulgarian carrot 30,000 flavour - quite unpleasant. Heat - out bl@@dy rageous! Got spat out and followed by a couple of mint chocolates.

So I'm starting to think the the Scoville scale is poppy cock . This isn't the first time I've had a similar experience. Any theories? Anyone experienced anything like this ?

SP, where did you get your Bulgarian Carrot seeds from?
(Just checked to make sure it wasn't me, before asking )

I don't think there's anything wrong with the Scoville Scale. It's basically just a scientific measure of the concentration of Capsaicin.

The problem is more often the websites and seed retailers, who in some cases are just re-packagers, who just copy and repeat information without actually growing or tasting things themselves.

In my personal experience, Bulgarian Carrot is much hotter than most websites claim, which can be as low as 2000-5000, and only up to around 30,000 SHUs.

In terms of heat, I'd put it closer to the 30,000, and it can seem hotter because it's thick-walled compared to a cayenne type.

[Philthy]

The Scoville Scale was a credible point of reference for a long while. Like Chris says, the theory is still sound, but the guides unfortunately are becoming ever more muddled as less versed retailers make their own interpretations without necessarily doing their homework. A couple of months back I was in a branch of Wyevale; they had a display stand of chilli plants (pretty decent selection and quality actually) with accompanying chart giving the names and heat levels. What caught my eye was they had Inferno up near the top spot as being very hot, next to Bhut Jolokia. Not even close! Inferno sounds hot but in reality it's about five thousand on the scale, much more a vegetable than a spice. Jolokia of course is in the hundreds of thousands!
More recently I found quite an in depth scale hosted in Australia I think that reckoned Lemon Drop was on a par with Bird's Eye for heat level. I'd disagree with that totally as well.
You can indeed maximise heat depending how you grow the plants, I personally think pot size does make a difference to the end result.
Also in agreement there are a lot of emerging chilli strains with low to no heat, mild enough to use raw in a salad (same intensity as radish perhaps). And when you cook with these new wave peppers you get fruity flavours rather than heat.

I found an absolutely gorgeous example just tonight: Cheiro Roxa - anyone grown this one yet?

[Small pumpkin]

SP, where did you get your Bulgarian Carrot seeds from?
(Just checked to make sure it wasn't me, before asking )

I believe I got them from Nicky's nursery ( will double check later ). I remember having a really hard time germinating them ( along with lots of other seeds from there ! ).

[Small pumpkin]

The Scoville Scale was a credible point of reference for a long while. Like Chris says, the theory is still sound, but the guides unfortunately are becoming ever more muddled as less versed retailers make their own interpretations without necessarily doing their homework. A couple of months back I was in a branch of Wyevale; they had a display stand of chilli plants (pretty decent selection and quality actually) with accompanying chart giving the names and heat levels. What caught my eye was they had Inferno up near the top spot as being very hot, next to Bhut Jolokia. Not even close! Inferno sounds hot but in reality it's about five thousand on the scale, much more a vegetable than a spice. Jolokia of course is in the hundreds of thousands!
More recently I found quite an in depth scale hosted in Australia I think that reckoned Lemon Drop was on a par with Bird's Eye for heat level. I'd disagree with that totally as well.
You can indeed maximise heat depending how you grow the plants, I personally think pot size does make a difference to the end result.
Also in agreement there are a lot of emerging chilli strains with low to no heat, mild enough to use raw in a salad (same intensity as radish perhaps). And when you cook with these new wave peppers you get fruity flavours rather than heat.

I found an absolutely gorgeous example just tonight: Cheiro Roxa - anyone grown this one yet?

Bob would probably agree with the Australia's scale regarding the lemon drop. He can happily tolerate a chocolate hab in a meal. The same meal with a lemon drop he really struggles with.

Never tried or heard of Cheiro Roxa. Now running off to gooooogle.

[Small pumpkin]

When I'm looking for the Scoville scale of something. I check several different charts that are available online. Just to check if they agree with each other and take an average. Always lean a little more towards the high end. Then hopefully no one is surprised. It pretty easy to find the heat of the more common one and most charts usually agree. It gets very difficult with the more unusual varieties. Some you only find a passing comment in a write up from 5 years ago or something!
Because I sell my chillies I like to know roughly what the heat is. It's always one of the first questions everyone asks. And that's why I try them myself. So I that the information. It would a little unprofessional just to say that one will blow your *#%$*!^ head off ! Even if it is incredibly accurate
I know there's always going to be a little variation in heat levels due to growing conditions and well pretty much every chillies being the fickle things they are!
But I didn't realise the scale could be so far out. I'll be honest that Bulgarian carrot hurt

[Mitzi]

I'm not normally guilty of tangentisation but would you believe that Dundee Food and Flower Festival up till Last year had a class for the best chilli by taste. There were all sorts entered including Scotch Bonnets. I was one of two judges and we refused to taste the Chillies on health and safety grounds. The class has been deleted this year.

We did cut each chilli and judged on quality and appearance. Apart from the safety aspect though, how could anyone judge by taste when one's pallete would be destroyed after tasting the first one?

ermhhhh, tangentisation over

Start with the hottest one. After you have recovered a bit from the burn, try the others - they won't seem hot at all after the first one, so the actual flavour should come through a bit more.

Having said that, I don't often get much flavour from chillies. I'm generally mystified when I see taste tests where they describe all the nuances of the flavour of a particular variety.

[Mitzi]

I found an absolutely gorgeous example just tonight: Cheiro Roxa - anyone grown this one yet?

I've considered it because it's an absolutely gorgeous plant but haven't actually got round to it yet. I might even have some seeds in my stash. I have grown Purple Peach (from Nicky's Nursery) which I believe to be CGN 21500, and I believe it to be closely related to Cheiro Roxa - basically it's a different shape (globular) but everything else about the plant seems the same. So no, I've not grown it but I've grown something similar which I do like.

[Chris11]

I found an absolutely gorgeous example just tonight: Cheiro Roxa - anyone grown this one yet?

I've considered it because it's an absolutely gorgeous plant but haven't actually got round to it yet. I might even have some seeds in my stash. I have grown Purple Peach (from Nicky's Nursery) which I believe to be CGN 21500, and I believe it to be closely related to Cheiro Roxa - basically it's a different shape (globular) but everything else about the plant seems the same. So no, I've not grown it but I've grown something similar which I do like.

Similar here, not grown Cheiro Roxa but it's very attractive.

Nicky's seemed to have stopped selling Purple Peach (CGN 21500), but I'm lucky enough to have got some seeds from a like-minded fellow grower .
I'm hoping to find room for it next year.

More info about it here: CGN 21500 - Fatalii Seeds

[Jay-ell]

I like hot red round chillies. Mainly because I can dehydrate them and leave them in a jar on the bench for when my sister comes around - she usually clears me out of dehydrated cherry toms.