Bhut Jolokia aka Ghost Pepper Chili

In the world of hot peppers, while no longer the record holder for being the hottest, the bhut jolokia or “ghost pepper” is still the most popular super hot pepper. Is the ghost pepper as widely known as the habanero…not even close. Is it getting more popular…you bet!

Known Ghost Pepper Varieties
There are a number of bhut jolokia strains. Some much more stable than others…the least stable or “ghost pepper like” in my opinion are the purple, white and caramel bhut jolokias. That said, here are the types I know of:

1. Red Bhut Jolokia
2. Giant Red Bhut Jolokia
3. Chocolate Bhut Jolokia
4. Yellow Bhut Jolokia
5. Purple Bhut Jolokia (questionable)
6. White Bhut Jolokia (questionable)
7. Assam Bhut Jolokia Indian Carbon
8. Caramel Bhut Jolokia (questionable)
9. Peach Bhut Jolokia

Ghost Pepper Picture Slideshow
(click or tap pictures to advance)


Ghost Pepper Videos

These videos will give you an idea of how ghost peppers actually taste and what to expect. You won’t find people rolling around on the floor in agony in any of these videos.

Ghost Pepper Popularity
The ghost pepper’s popularity has risen as fast in the United States as anywhere else in the world. In 2011, despite losing the record for world’s hottest pepper in June to the Butch T Trinidad Scorpion, the ghost pepper’s popularity continued to reach new highs.

A quick check of Google Insights shows which states saw the largest relative increase in searches for ghost pepper related terms:

1. West Virginia
2. Minnesota
3. Nebraska
4. Iowa
5. Texas
6. Ohio
7. Kentucky
8. Oklahoma
9. Michigan
10. Illinois

Another quick check of Google Insights reveals the the fastest rising search terms people are using to look for the bhut jolokia / ghost pepper:

1. ghost pepper chili
2. ghost chili
3. the ghost pepper
4. hottest pepper
5. hottest pepper ghost
6. ghost hot pepper
7. ghost peppers
8. scoville
9. ghost pepper sauce
10. ghost pepper scoville

Along with an increase in popularity comes an increase in commercial products that use ghost peppers. While I have not tried all of these I am aware of the following products related to the ghost pepper:

1. Seeds
2. Hot Sauces
3. Powders/Flakes
4. Fresh Pods
5. Dried Pods
6. Candy
7. Popcorn
8. Salsas
9. Plants (commercial an novelty)
10. Cloths

This post will be periodically updated with new ghost pepper related info.

7 thoughts on “Bhut Jolokia aka Ghost Pepper Chili

  1. pepperseed Post author

    @hotsliceofplacenta

    I would actually say the same thing. Everything I have read says that both the purple and white bhuts ripen to red. I haven’t seen pictures of the whites turning red but have seen one of a “purple bhut” with a red one on the same plant. Someone’s actually used the picture to sell the purple bhut seeds on ebay:

    http://i.ebayimg.com/00/$%28KGrHqQOKjIE3vIwCOPhBOFNz7c!vg~~_35.JPG

    Pretty sure it’s the same story with the white bhuts. I don’t even think the the “purple bhuts” look like bhut jolokias at all. Since they don’t ripen to purple or white as far as I am concerned they are just some kind of red bhut jolokia cross.

    Reply
  2. pepperseed Post author

    Oh and for the caramel bhut…read my post. It might just be a cross so I’m not selling seeds or trying to pass it off as some new strain. A few different people are growing it this year so we’ll see what happens.

    Reply
  3. John

    Ive got 3 nice ghost chili plants that I bought at about 5″ tall from the local home depot. They all produce alot of peppers. Two of them produce smaller/rounder peppers about 2″ in length. The third plant produces larger/longer peppers over 3″ in length, and it has grown to be a much larger plant (just under 4ft tall!). The first year I had them they all grew in green, then turned yellow, then orange and then a deep red, but I got about 3 peppers off of the larger plant that started off green and then turned white and then to deep red. This year they just started growing in, and all three plants have pale (milky white/green) peppers with deep purple swirls throughout. Not sure why they are different this year, but I am pretty sure that they will still ripen a deep red color… We’ll see

    Reply
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