They might be Trinidad Scotch bonnets. Those tend to look exactly like what you’ve got there. Taste one and you’ll know right away if it’s a hab. Scotch bonnets are much closer to a red bell pepper in flavor.
Easy_does_it78
Looks like Habaneros to me
GhettoSauce
I get the confusion.
I buy and grow big red habaneros with big bodies and fat lobes on top. I think they’re Trinidad Congo or Red Savina. Either way, these big red varieties of habs don’t look like these.
I also buy and grow “bonnets” that resemble yours 100%, often being able to get them in green, yellow, orange and red, all in the same package (from a farmer’s market, who claim they’re “bonnets” and sell habs separately).
The two have vastly-different flavors. The big red habs are almost “chemical” with the heat; very sharp, powerful and long-lasting – with a slight fruity undertone. They smell sweet when cut. They seem to retain their heat when cooked. They have thick walls.
The “bonnets” have a deeper heat that hits different; they have a bit of a ramp up to the full heat, have fruitier notes, and smell unmistakably smoky when cut. They lose some heat when cooked. They have thin walls.
I’ve stood there with both proper habs and these “bonnets” laid in front of me and I’ve tried to figure out what’s going on. I use AI. I used my reference textbooks. I use this sub. Apparently even the average # of lobes can differentiate them, but it’s still hard to tell.
My current theory is that these *are* scotch bonnets, but that many major producers have made them lose their characteristic bonnet shape along the way; probably inadvertently crossing with habaneros, or doing this on purpose for yield/ease of cleaning vs the true bonnet shape. I’m happy claiming “habanero” as a *type of pod shape* and thus including these as “habs”, but then again the original scotch bonnets wouldn’t be in the hab family of shapes.
One thing’s clear to me, though – the ones you have probably taste 100% different compared to common habs, and that the confusion is real. Very many people have been asking this, which is proof that it’s confusing, lol. It goes beyond grocery store packaging/mislabeling.
10 Comments
Habs
Habanero all day. Possibly Savina based on color. What’s the heat and flavor like
Definitely not Scotch bonnet this is Scotch bonnet
https://preview.redd.it/6hvjmz0wsmzf1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=194d7f390bd0b4c6bb2e35135324c3a042566a1b
Red habanero
Habanero
Definitely PepperJoe Reapers.
They might be Trinidad Scotch bonnets. Those tend to look exactly like what you’ve got there. Taste one and you’ll know right away if it’s a hab. Scotch bonnets are much closer to a red bell pepper in flavor.
Looks like Habaneros to me
I get the confusion.
I buy and grow big red habaneros with big bodies and fat lobes on top. I think they’re Trinidad Congo or Red Savina. Either way, these big red varieties of habs don’t look like these.
I also buy and grow “bonnets” that resemble yours 100%, often being able to get them in green, yellow, orange and red, all in the same package (from a farmer’s market, who claim they’re “bonnets” and sell habs separately).
The two have vastly-different flavors. The big red habs are almost “chemical” with the heat; very sharp, powerful and long-lasting – with a slight fruity undertone. They smell sweet when cut. They seem to retain their heat when cooked. They have thick walls.
The “bonnets” have a deeper heat that hits different; they have a bit of a ramp up to the full heat, have fruitier notes, and smell unmistakably smoky when cut. They lose some heat when cooked. They have thin walls.
I’ve stood there with both proper habs and these “bonnets” laid in front of me and I’ve tried to figure out what’s going on. I use AI. I used my reference textbooks. I use this sub. Apparently even the average # of lobes can differentiate them, but it’s still hard to tell.
My current theory is that these *are* scotch bonnets, but that many major producers have made them lose their characteristic bonnet shape along the way; probably inadvertently crossing with habaneros, or doing this on purpose for yield/ease of cleaning vs the true bonnet shape. I’m happy claiming “habanero” as a *type of pod shape* and thus including these as “habs”, but then again the original scotch bonnets wouldn’t be in the hab family of shapes.
One thing’s clear to me, though – the ones you have probably taste 100% different compared to common habs, and that the confusion is real. Very many people have been asking this, which is proof that it’s confusing, lol. It goes beyond grocery store packaging/mislabeling.
I think that they’re hybrids.
Habanadas