Hungry in Berlin

Definitely Scotch Bonnets. They are superscharf indeed, being closely related to to Habaneros.

Where do I get my peppers? I grow them myself, on my balcony. And yes, the ones you can buy in stores or at the markets are not labled, people just call them “Chilis”. I guess this will change within the next few years, because slowly people are beginning to love their Chilis, so good old supply and demand will do the trick.

Btw: I sell some of my 2007 harvest at Goldhahn & Sampson!

Thomas: I would totally agree with you on their shape, but the rub is: they’re actually not that hot! I’d be beyond giddy if they were scotch bonnets, but I fear they might just be a lazier cousin. And talk about a harvest! The pics of your peppers are AMAZING. Some of the best vegetable porno I’ve seen in some time. Do you grow jalapenos too?

Sean: Sounds like a grow-your-own is the way to go for a constant supply, for now. (Unless we can get Thomas to set up a delivery service?) I saw jalapenos (in a mixed package of peppers) in Munich, once; no sightings yet in Berlin. Asian markets too are great for the long, slender Thai chilis–they dry really easily (couple hours in the oven on low heat) and keep well.

Thanks Aimee Yes, I’ve got four jalapeno plants, but there is nothing left on them - they have been raided completely. There seem to be differences in taste and hotness even among same varieties, probably depending on the quality of the seeds. If a good chili variety gets cross-pollinated with other chili varieties the resulting seeds can make for plants that are different from their parents. They might loose their hotness or might get even hotter, you never know. That’s why I order my seeds from a professional nursery, they would cover every single variety with a net - like a condom - so they would pollinate only among their own. The resulting seeds would grow to the exact variety that you want. I get my seeds from ‘Semillas’, a nursery on La Palma: http://www.semillas.de/

They have four types of jalapenos, I liked the “Jalapeno M” the most, they are big fat green with those lovely ‘corky’ scratches: http://www.semillas.de/cgi-bin/shop/shop.cgi?shop=&keywords=jalapeno&cart_id=8784790.11849

This mutation thing is probably also true for habaneros and scotch bonnets. They can loose their hotness by ‘watering-down’ with other varieties. One of my Habaneros, the ‘NuMex Suave Orange’ is such a new breed. It has no hotness at all but still has got all the aroma. Weird!

Yes, most asian food shops offer a couple of chili varieties. Normally the long and thin ones are great, but I was never really happy with their habanero type ones. Maybe I always grabbed the bad ones, but they never had that tropical fruity aroma I was looking for. So I got myself seeds from that nursery and they are growing perfect. Especially the Chocolate habanero was super mega monster hot with that tropical aroma, our new best friend in the cooking pan. Scotch bonnets by the way are somewhat difficult to grow in European climate, they need a lot of sun and warmth. On my balcony Habaneros always grow much better than Scotch bonnets.

I just had the idea to talk to our veg supplier ‘Gut Krauscha’ about growing some Jalapenos for us next year. Yep, that’s a good idea, I will do that

Aimee: this may now feel like an advert break… I am embarrased, ummm, anyway: when I was talking of ‘us’ I meant the Goldhahn & Sampson shop. We get our vegs from Gut Krauscha. You probably know Krauscha by their chicken and vegetable stocks but they also distribute all sorts of organic fruit and vegetable from small farmers in saxony. They deliver every friday, I know that they do deliver to a few other shops in Berlin but I have no idea where (honestly!) You could ask Sella though (http://www.gut-krauscha.de/menschen.html).