Dorset Naga Chilies now sold in Tesco - are they really hot?

[chinchinmix]

Hello. We were absolutely delighted when we spotted packs of Dorset Naga Chillies on Tesco shelves the other day.

However something is terribly wrong. They just don't have any heat! My husband and I love hot chillies and grow our own chillies in the greenhouse each year. It is always a challenge to grow really nice hot ones and we've so been looking forward to cooking with (and munching on) Dorset Nagas. We can't seem to manage to grow that variety.

The packet of Dorset Naga we have just used really doesn't have any heat (nor at the moment do Tesco's Scotch Bonnet chillies). In fact to be honest the little green birdseyes have more heat than the Nagas they are selling. I just don't understand how they can sell chillies under the name of Dorset Nagas when they are clearly not very hot.

What do you think is going on? Are others finding them rather lame or is it just me?

Yvonne

[RingburnDave]

post pictures of said dorset nagas please :)

[JayT]

First of all, welcome! When you say packs, are you saying fresh pods, or picked cans? If they are fresh there will be no question nagas or scotch bonnets WILL be HOT. I am not familiar with Tesco, but I am assuming it is a big chain store. I have had mixed luck with buying peppers at stores like that. Sometimes I have been disappointed, but a few times I have hit the jackpot. Either way it has been a cheap gamble so I continue to do it. Enjoy yourself on the greatest site on the net.

[rainbowberry]

This is a photo someone else posted on a UK forum of their Tesco (it's one of our main supermarkets Jay) Dorset Nagas. That black thing is their car keys.

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s275/tuliptwinkle/nagarz4.jpg

[talas]

Yep theres been lots of complaints about these having virtually no heat havent tried the nagas but agree about the scotch bonnets being absolute rubbish :rolleyes:

[Davetaylor]

the fact that the nagas have been picked way before they are ripe doesn't help and they are tiny. I tried one and it was just like your normal run of the mill green pepper but with a slightly bitter edge to it

[shayneyasinski]

I have yet to find any supermarket pepper to have all that much heat other than a habenaro ...

I bought what I thought was trinidad scorpions and they had nothing !!
I would say that davetaylor was spot on when he said they pick them green.

[Ratso]

I grow "Naga Morich" and they are certainly HOT, one reason could be the grower has used a seed source that has been cross pollinated with a different chilli and therefore it's inherited the lower heat, while keeping the shape.

[patrick]

I would hate to see somebody eat one from Tesco thinking they had conquered the real naga then run across one that was potent and eat it. Or would that be a fun thing to see?

[talas]

Bought a pack they taste forced and are quite small to for dorsets,Mine where ripe but had virtually no heat..More like bell peppers was really shocked :shocked: