For The First Time : The Big Boys Put To The Test On UK Soil!
Dorset Naga, The Chileman Naga Morich, Bih Jolokia and Bhut Jolokia Comparison
Dorset Naga from Peppers by Post, Naga Morich from The Chileman, Bih Jolokia from Frontal Agritech and Bhut Jolokia from The Chile Pepper Institute have been put to the test.
The Chile Pepper Company in conjunction with Warwick HRI (a Department of the University of Warwick) and with the suppliers of the four hottest chillies in the world have conducted a comparison test to see how well, how hot and how easily these chillies grow in the UK.
To the best of our knowledge this is the only current independent, scientific comparison trial of these chillies. No two chilli plants or pods are the same. We are growing two of each plant variety and when we say typical we mean typical of our two plants per variety.
We are growing in controlled conditions plants raised of:
| Dorset Naga | supplied by Peppers by Post |
| Naga Morich | supplied by The Chileman |
| Bhut Jolokia | supplied by the Chile Pepper Institute |
| Bih Jolokia | supplied by Frontal Agritech |
The protocol for sampling and preparation for testing will be agreed with Warwick HRI (a Department of the University of Warwick) and they will be testing the pods. It is hoped that these tests will provide further objective and independent evidence to substantiate the heat levels that these varieties can achieve given typical growing conditions in the UK. Currently the most rigorous testing (to meet the standards required by the Guinness Book of World Records) confirms the Bhut Jolokia as the World’s hottest chilli at 1,001,304 SHU. Testing of the Bih Jolokia, organised by Frontal Agritech, gave an even higher value of 1,041,427 SHU. Warwick HRI state that the test results quoted by BBC Gardeners World for the Dorset Naga of approximately 1.5 million SHU were generated from a non-standard test which used fresh fruit rather than dried and therefore can not be compared directly to the heat value recorded for the Bhut Jolokia, Bih Jolokia and Naga Morich. Our testing programme is being designed to ensure that each variety is grown in controlled conditions and will be sampled and prepared to a protocol agreed with Warwick HRI to ensure the credibility of comparison between the varieties.
We will be reporting on the progress of our trial and on its results on this website.
The observations below are from our experience and from this growing season. We have grown the plants as we would normally grow chillies. This has been done in a greenhouse, heated when the weather has been cold, all plants have been treated the same and placed together for the same amount of heat and light.
| Chilli Variety | Typical Observations as of End Sept. Typical fruit per plant is ripe now. There are lots of flowers still to fruit on all plants. |
| Dorset Naga | Good size plant, wedge shaped thick fleshed fruit,
outward growing as opposed to upward. Stem and underside of leaves are
hairy, fruit colour very deep red. Roughly 20 to 30 fruit per plant, with clusters of 1 to 3 fruit. All plants in test have produced good strong health plants. |
| Naga Morich | Slightly more elongated fruit than the Dorset, a very deep red as Dorset Naga, hairy stems branches and underside of leaves. More of an upward growing habit, thick fleshed fruit. Roughly 20 to 30 fruit per plant, with clusters of 1 to 3 fruit. |
| Bih Jolokia | Slightly lower growing bushy plant with a more outward
branching habit, the most prolific producer of fruit with 2 to 3 times the
amount of fruit compared to all the others on test. Thinner fleshed fruit
slightly longer than the Naga, sweeter smell, even when dried. A
lot lighter in colour than the Naga. Roughly 50 fruits per plant, with clusters of 3 to 4 fruit per |
| Bhut Jolokia | Taller, slimmer plant with the longest, thinnest and most dimply fruit. Curves with stem as the Bih Jolokia. Very strong sweet scent, Roughly 35 fruits per plant, with clusters of 2 to 4 fruit, 4 being the most and 2 being typical. |
Photos of typical ripe fruit
To Be continued........
