Chile Related 2 Part ?

[obispo45]

Hope everyone has been having a ton of fun this season regardless of what they grow. Been pretty fortunate in the weather department here this season, until last weekend anyway. Since roughly May 15th to August 15th I had received slightly less than 4" of precip. In the last 6 days I have gotten it in buckets....13.25" to be exact. Small town about 30 minutes SE of me set the new, but as of yet unconfirmed 24hr Minnesota state rainfall record: an incredible 15.1"!! Smashed the old 24hr record that was just a teeny tiny bit over 10". OK enough of that...hopefully!!!

Just curious. What hot stuff have we had great success with so far this year? Guess I'll be going first in just a second or two here. Number B of my two part question is slightly more problematic. Not a problem persay but IMO a tough one to define: What are your favorite tasting hot pepper cultivars (this year or any other year for that matter)?? I say "problematic" cuz' I have more than a handful of fellow tomato growing friends and/or food friends plus family that would be considered non-tasters. The very thought of some Taco Bell mild sauce or some baseball stadium brown mustard has them running for a fire extinquisher. In all honesty it took me quite some time too to be able to discern the various taste qualities and subtle nuances of the limitless diversity of the hot stuff.

Great 2007 peppers? Tried growing Wenk's Yellow Hots for the first time this year and they've been great. Really nice 3"+ conical shaped, very very thick walled moderately hot tasty treats... pleasant and pretty surprise. Brazilian Starfish has been a blast, just massive plants with gorgeous unusually shaped abundant fruits. Decent number of the pepps ACTUALLY do look like starfish, was skeptical initially but wow man!! Others of note that have thus far gone above and beyond:
*Aji Limo...IMO can't ask for a better chile!!
*Buist's Yellow Cayenne...I'll be growing this one forever
*Hungarian Black....led to believe it just loves Minnesota
*Hinkelhatz x2...both the red and yellow ones, awesome!
*Devil's Tongue...reminescent of Fatalii, crinklier and bigger
*Nepali Orange...everyone PLEASE try growing this one
*couple others too, but these have really shined this year.
*NO MORE: Holy Mole f1 or Charleston Hot

Favorite tasting ones? If I was forced to consume only one it would have to be Aji Limo/limon/Lemon Drop. Yea it can be real hot but I have yet to taste a pepper that has such a balanced citrusy quality to it, lightly roasting them enhances it even more. Not a real lingering heat or even an acidic initial heat blast of sorts but a sense of warmth would be more accurate in this tasters opinion. Aci Sivri would be a close second. Not really hot for a cayenne type but in terms of sweetness its just like some earthy/chocolately tasting candy that masquerades as a chile pepper. Truly wonderful stuff and so pretty when they're fire engine red and average over 10"...kind o' like Jimmy Nardello's slightly firey cousin. Others high on my personal yummy scale:

*Serrano(Tampequino one)...big for a serrano, great green
*Jamaican Hot Chocolate...very balanced mellower Hab. type
*Manzano Rojo...thickly fleshed juicy black seeded treat
*Datil..don't grow too well here but even a handful is great
*Hinkelhatz...red cultivar, probably the perfect pickling pepp

I don't know, I could be wrong or half whacky(probably little of both) but it often seems difficult to get folks to evaluate and "review" their taste test findings with the hot stuff. I'm guilty. I have tasted in the neighborhood of 500 distinct hot pepper varieties(grown just under 300 cultivars) but really only started paying attention to my taste preferences probably three summers back. Take care y'all!