I was anxious to try these peppers because of all the hype about them, so I ordered 2 of these bags from the Chili Pepper Emporium. The first thing I made with them was salsa, I started with one chili to see how hot it was, I soaked it in warm water for awhile until it softened and diced it up and added it to my salsa. The next morning I tried it and it wasn’t very hot so I added 4 more. I soaked the chilis in hot water in a shot glass because I didn’t want them to lose any heat to the water. I decided to use as little water as possible to soak them in while still having them completely submerged. My first taste of the pepper was the shot of water they had been soaking in. It didn’t taste hot but it really screwed with my stomach. I took this salsa to work and ate it at lunch.
Personally I was disappointed by the level of heat. But it was pretty hot though, I warned everybody it was hot, but there were still people with bright red faces looking like they where about to cry. My boss accused me of trying to kill her. (Jokingly of course). The next week I made a second batch, and this time I ground about 5 or 6 peppers up in my coffee grinder (this is all its used for) and mixed it in. Both methods had about the same heat level, but the second one was easier. I will probably grind the rest of these peppers and use them as a seasoning on a large variety of foods.
All in all these peppers where very good. I think the heat level of them is over hyped, that’s why I was initially disappointed but they where hotter than my habs and had great flavor. I probably won’t buy them again anytime in the near future because they are to expensive. They are to expensive based on the fact that I grow all my hot peppers but was told that these are extremely difficult to grow in this area. I would love to try these fresh and if they ever started selling them somewhere local I would definitely use them quite a bit.
Buying info: I got these at www.chilipepperemporium.com I checked if they still had some in stock and was told 15 packages left as of July 23 2007. The website on the package is chillipepperpete.com. I checked it out and it is still in business selling these same packages. www.Chilipepperemporium.com is 40 percent off because they are going out of business, so I’d suggest trying there first.
Heat: Officially the hottest pepper in the world so I guess it has to be a 10 right? Just keep in mind that it is over hyped.
Flavor: great
Price: Depends on where you get them, since I’m reviewing something that’s sold by a lot of different company’s and brand names I really cant say.
Recommendation: Would I buy them again? Like I said above, it’s not worth it to me to buy peppers when I can grow them myself and I can’t grow these around here so I probably won’t buy them again unless they start selling them locally somewhere that I can get a better price and not have to pay shipping. As far as recommending them, definitely.