Mystery “Trinidad Scorpion” #1 Update – August 5, 2016

As I type up this post, the new Nesco dehydrator is humming softly upstairs, drying out a range of peppers, numbering about 15 in all. There should have been more in the dryer, but as you’ll see in a later post, it wasn’t meant to be.

Part of my first harvest of the season was this mystery “Trinidad Scorpion,” which is looking more and more like some sort of Scotch Bonnet. In comparing these pods with the Scotch Bonnet I picked last week, the similarities only seem to grow.

With this first run of the dehydrator, I had planned on sampling both of the mystery peppers and collecting seeds if I thought they were worthy of growing again next season. The first one up was this little guy. As you can see below, it’s a thick walled pepper with a good number of seed and a decent amount of placenta. The second photo below, of a second pod really shows the amount of oil in this little guys.

The peppers smell like Scotch Bonnets with a nice fruity aroma and a little nose-tingling heat. And the couple that I sampled had a similar flavor, but weren’t quite as fruity nor as fiery. The heat is of a low-to-moderate level that sits mostly on the tongue.

I went ahead and collected a few seeds from a couple of this mystery pepper’s fruits. I liked the flavor and while it wasn’t overly hot, it would do nicely in a few dishes. So, we’ll give it another shot next year.