Chocolate bhut jolokia peppers are extremely hot chiles with a deceivingly sweet chocolaty color. These hybrid peppers are excellent for those who love dishes with a massive kick of heat. Bhut jolokia's unique flavor makes it ideal for super-hot sauces, salsas, curries, soups, and meats.
What Is A Chocolate bhut jolokia?
Chocolate Bhut jolokia pepper is a fiery member of the capsicum chinense species. Also known as chocolate ghost pepper, this chile is an offspring of red bhut jolokia and 7 pot douglah’s brown variety.
Chocolate bhut jolokia takes after its pepper parents in terms of heat and flavor. This explains the slow-burning heat that lingers long after eating the chocolate ghost chiles.
Sometimes, bhut jolokias vary in taste and spice depending on the soil type and growing conditions. While some bold people consume these chocolate-like peppers raw, it’s best to use them in hot sauces, salsas, soups, or general cooking.
Origins
Pronounced as chocolate boot ja-LOW-key-u, this ghost pepper originated from northeast India. In Hindi, bhut means ghost, while jolokia translates to pepper in English.
The Indian states of Nagaland, Assam, and Manipur have been growing and consuming chocolate ghost peppers for centuries. Interestingly, this chocolate pepper was discovered by Frontal Agritech Company, which introduced it to the western world between 2000-2008.
In 2007, chocolate bhut jolokia was certified in the Guinness book as the hottest pepper with over 1 million Scoville heat units. Today, this hybrid chile remains rare as it grows well in weather conditions similar to north-eastern India.
Taste
Be careful. Don’t let the beautiful chocolate color deceive you into thinking you’ll be eating a chocolate bar. These brown ghost peppers don’t taste anything like chocolate.
Chocolate bhut jolokias have a subtly sweet, fruity, floral, tangy taste with smoky and citrusy undertones. These flavors come after taking your first bite before paving the way for a slow-building extreme heat that lingers on minutes later.
Size
Like other bhut jolokias, this brown variety may have varying-sized pepper pods depending on growing and environmental conditions. On average, chocolate ghost peppers are 2-3” long and .75-1” wide, with pepper pants growing up to 4 feet high.
Appearance & Texture
Chocolate ghost peppers have a crinkled, gnarled appearance with thin, crispy skin that feels smooth and glossy. They closely resemble their cousins, red ghost peppers.
Shape
A chocolate chili pepper has a conical shape that tappers to a pointy non-stem end.
Color
Chocolate peppers start with a bright green color, turning red and eventually dark brownish-green when fully mature. Its pepper seeds are tiny and cream-colored.
How Spicy Is A Chocolate Ghost Pepper?
Chocolate ghost peppers are among the top superhot chiles with a range of 800,000-1,001,304 SHUs on the Scoville scale. This heat level puts the brown variety at par with its parent, red ghost peppers.
Chocolate bhut jolokias are 100-400 times hotter than the average jalapeno.
The burning chocolate Trinidad Moruga scorpion (800,000-1,300,000 shu) has a closer spiciness with brown jolokias, while chocolate bhutlah (2,000,000 SHUs) possesses a higher heat level.
The current world’s hottest pepper, Carolina reaper (up to 2,200, 2000 SHUs), is almost two times hotter than chocolate bhut jolokia peppers.
What is bhut jolokia chocolate used for?
Bhut jolokia chocolate peppers are versatile and work well with popular recipes as follows:
- Barbeque sauces – Add a small amount of chocolate ghost peppers to your favorite sweet BBQ sauce for heat and flavor.
- Hot sauces – Make your own super-spicy hot sauces. Try this mango habanero recipe; the sweetness of the tropical mango and sweet heat from the ghost pepper make a fantastic pairing.
- Stews – Toss one of these ghost peppers into your stew whole and remove it before serving.
- Marinades – Pureed chocolate bhut jolokia or powder gives Caribbean marinades, like jerk sauce, an explosive flavor and heat.
- Curries – Add sliced chocolate bhut jolokias to curries.
- Pizzas – Add chocolate ghost peppers to your homemade pizza sauce or make crushed pepper flakes from dried chiles for a garnish.
- Salsas – If you can stand the heat of eating ghost peppers raw, chopped chocolate Bhut jolokia peppers will fire up your homemade salsa.
- Meats and seafood – The peppers pair well with pork, beef, chicken, and seafood.
- Hot pepper jelly – Use chocolate jolokias to make a colorful ghost pepper jelly.
- Dried – You can dry and grind the peppers and use them to spice your favorite dishes in the same way you would use any other (extremely spicy) dried chili powder.
Use caution when eating any super hot pepper raw in large quantities as they may cause health complications.
Where To Buy Chocolate Ghost Peppers
Fresh chocolate bhut jolokia peppers are rare in markets outside of north India. You may find the chiles in stock in specialty markets if you live in the U.S., Australia, Asia, and Europe.
Substitutes For bhut jolokia Chocolate
Aside from the red color, red bhut jolokia peppers are the best substitutes for chocolate ghost peppers’ heat and flavor.
The chocolate Trinidad Moruga scorpion has a similar heat level, fruitiness, and tanginess as the brown bhut jolokia.
If you can stand its painful heat, chocolate bhutlah peppers (2M SHUs) have a fruity, floral, and smoky taste similar to chocolate jolokias
Though milder in heat, the chocolate habanero peppers are also floral and fruity and have a brown hue like the chocolate ghost pepper.
Can You Grow Chocolate bhut jolokia?
The chocolate bhut jolokia peppers are low-maintenance plants. They need humid, warm, moist, sunny weather similar to India’s.
Start by planting the pepper seeds in a tray indoors before transplanting them to containers or garden. With full sun, germination takes 10-15 days.
Using organic compost provides your pepper plants with essential phosphorous and calcium. Chocolate ghost peppers have a long ripening period, about 5 months from sowing seeds indoors to harvest. The peppers are ready when they’re 2-3” long and are a deep, chocolate brown color.