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Ghost peppers are the hottest peppers I've ever dared to eat directly. They are so far beyond hot that I don't even feel a burning sensation - more like pure, unadulterated pain like you'd expect from having a nail driven through your tongue. I really don't like the flavor of them either so there isn't really much motivation for me to ever eat one again. They are really great in small quantities for spicing up dishes without altering the flavor of the dish in question though.

Habanero peppers on the other hand - have a wonderfully fruity flavor. I wish I had a bit more stamina with regards to eating them. :(




It wasn't a ghost pepper, but I once at a small green pepper that was so hot that my tastebuds kind of short circuited, and all I could taste was roses. After a few seconds of that, stye came back online with the excruciating burn of a very hot pepper, but for about 3 seconds, I could have sworn I had eaten a rose.


Very tangentially related, I once tasted a experimental whiskey which was explicitly made to be just about as smokey as possible.

Which my brain - to my astonishment - interpreted as the smell of particular kind of very fine dry sand, on a varm day. It was hilariously wierd to drink a liquid and not get any taste sensation, or even any significant feeling of imbibing a liquid for that matter. Never has 1cl of liquor made me as giddy as that one time :)


When I was about 10, I was down in Mexico doing some volunteer work. Someone gave me a small green pepper. I bit into it, and it was incredibly juicy. I remember feeling a burst of stars in my mouth, a short pleasant flavor, numbness, and then a feeling like a firecracker went off in my mouth. I drank a lot of water, but my mouth burned for a solid hour.


<-- would pay and suffer to experience this illusion!


Get yourself some "miracle berries" for something similar (although without the heat involved).


chile pequin maybe?


People in India supposedly use ghost peppers painted on fences to keep elephants out. Anything that causes and elephant pain is something I don't want to try.


Mild habanero varieties exist with the same flavor, eg:

http://www.chilepepperinstitute.org/content/files/Suave.pdf

However, I have only seen them sold as seeds, and I prefer normal habaneros so I've never tried growing them.


> I wish I had a bit more stamina with regards to eating them.

It is possible to separate out the heat from the flavor using a centrifuge. I remember seeing a cooking show where that was done to make a ghost pepper milkshake without any of the spiciness. If you're keen to explore the taste of peppers, you might look into it.


I cook with habs. The fumes are enough and I scrub after. But one hab in a jambalaya is quite tasty.




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