Fresh Ghost Peppers from MarxFoods

It's pretty difficult to describe the intense heat of Ghost Peppers to people who've never eaten one.  It's like describing the color red to someone who has been blind for their whole life.  Scorching, painful, gut melting - all terms that come to mind.  Downright scary - maybe to some.  Spooky - probably not.  Ghost peppers are also known as Naga Jolokia or Bhut Jolokia and they currently hold the title as the hottest chile in the world.  And, I'm lucky enough to have a box of them in my fridge and one of them in my belly.

Ghost peppers can range from 800,000 to roughly 1,000,000 Scoville heat units.  Just to give you some points of reference, Jalapenos measure in at around 5000 Scoville units on average.  That makes the Ghost Pepper 200 times hotter than a Jalapeno!  The Ghost Pepper even surpasses the old "hottest pepper in the world" by somewhere between 200,000-700,000 Scoville heat units.

Each individual chile may vary in heat but there is no doubt that the Ghost pepper is king.  When I received a 2oz sample of Ghost Peppers from MarxFoods I was like a kid at Christmas.  I immediately opened the package, washed a pepper and took a bite.  The heat struck almost instantly and with unrivaled fury.  It's was a very sharp stinging heat rather than a burn but it was very intense.  The heat overwhelmed my whole mouth and salivation kicked in a few seconds after I started chewing.  The sting became full on fire after about 30 seconds and the heat continued to build for several minutes.  The burn started to subside after about 5 minutes and the heat level in my mouth had dissipated after about ten minutes.

One thing that makes eating a fresh Ghost Pepper much different than eating even the hottest hot sauce is that the Ghost Pepper plays dirty.  If you've ever pressed your fingernail into a citrus peel you may have noticed a fine mist of citrus oil spray out.  When you bite into a chile pepper, the oils containing capsaicin do something very similar.

Many other peppers are mild enough that the burn of the mist is overshadowed by the burn on your tongue.  This is not necessarily so with the Ghost Pepper.  The mist is like aerosol capsaicin inside your mouth.  It settles on the back of your throat if you inhale while chewing and will immediately start to burn.  Coughing can ensue and if you're inexperienced with some of the super-hot chiles then it can seem like you can't breath.  I managed to avoid the coughing and hiccups that are sometimes go along with super-hot chiles or sauces so it was just good fun for me.

The flavor of the Ghost Pepper is unmistakable.  It has a very sweet, fruity flavor that rings of ripe red bell pepper.  It has an aroma that is even more distinct than it's flavor.  These small chiles exude notes of grass and have a rich earthy aroma.  The flavor is as intense as the heat.  I used one of these chiles in a grilled cheese sandwich and the aroma and flavor was unmistakable.  A single chopped two inch long pepper added a very intense pepper flavor that was second only to it's heat.

I think most chile-heads expect fresh Ghost Peppers to be expensive due to their popularity, the fact that it's a bit off-season, and the fact that they are notoriously difficult to grow.  These particular peppers are imported fresh from Holland which is a major source of capsicum for the US so I'm not so sure origin is a huge contributing factor in their price.  After all, there is a good chance that the bell peppers in your local supermarket are from Holland and they don't even come close to $120 per lb.

My only dig with these chiles is that they were fairly inconsistent in size.  They ranged from 1-3 inches in length.  Typical ripe ghost chiles range from 2.5-3.5 inches in length and about 1 inch in diameter.  Fun, fun, fun!