(Not) Joy’s Ghost Cayenne
The pepper review you are about to read is not for the Joy’s Ghost Cayenne. It was supposed to be about that hybrid, but either the seed packet I purchased had a random in it or the cross is not nearly stable enough to get the desired result. What we have here instead is what appears to be a peach Bhut Jolokia variant.
These things happen – especially when it comes to pepper crosses. Sometimes you get what you are expecting and other times you don’t. What I can tell you, is that the pepper I reviewed was pretty aggressive. The exterior is rather benign. It looks like any other, small Ghost Pepper variety with gently bumpy skin that was orange/peachy in color. Even the interior wasn’t all that scary. It was nearly void of placenta and only a small number of seeds were present.
The aroma has a strong floral character that smells like a mix of Habanero and Bhut Jolokia for the most part. Distant fruit notes linger. The flavor is somewhat similar, but has a bitterness to it that I am not particularly a fan of that joins that strong flowery character and light fruits. The fruitiness and bitterness fade quickly while the floral flavor lingers for a long while.
The heat hits immediately and accelerates rapidly to a medium-level Bhut Jolokia burn. It is focused solely on the tongue with a light stinging sensation. The rapid peak of the fire is surprising (hence the aggressive description above) and it sits atop that plateau for a good long while. While the pain never really spreads from the the tongue, it does hit the throat a bit with each swallow before eventually fading slowly to a lingering ember.
Regardless of whether this pepper was what I was hoping it would be, I did enjoy the burn. The flavor, however, not so much. I have had other peach Bhut Jolokia grown in the past that had a much better taste than this particular pepper. I may attempt to grow this one again next year to see if the correct peppers comes out in the end.