Taste report the French chilli ”Doux de Landes”

I have been looking for French chillies for some time, and never found them. There are chillies from the different regents like Landes or the Basque a regent in France. In France they use different non pungent or very mild chillies in their meals instead of black pepper; even in restaurants they have salt and chilli powder on the table instead of salt and pepper! In the Basqu their chillies have an Appelation d'Origine Controlee, which means a sort of quality and origin controlled certification mark, and this certification mark is not taken lightly. These are heirloom chillies that are cultural heritage, protected and all! They are very expensive to buy either whole and dried or in powdered form, and seeds are very very hard to get.
Now guess where I got them from, I got these seeds from the US, from Dilly's Chilis Seed Co., isn’t that nice?

Now this Doux de Landes, which means “Sweet of the Lands” is from the Landes regent. First time I tasted it, I tasted it together with my son Bram, and I ate the first bit, and felt no heat at all. Bram didn’t get any heat at all, and when I looked again, he had eaten it in total seeds and all. He just smiled and say: Dad, that was one sweet lovely chilli, the best sweet chilli I have ever had! And man did he have a huge smile! I couldn’t be mad at all.
Some days later he said: I have eaten the others too, will we get more soon? Now I did get worried, and had a chat with him.
He understood, no worries, but I had a bit of a problem. There were only 2 others, and I needed to guard them, and took the last plant carrying, in the house.

Now I finally tasted the second last one. Just as I remembered, that is one chilli you need. It is fruity, and paprika like with both herbs and fruits, with the sweets not being over the top. Hot darn, I love it, and only got one fruit left. I got the seeds from Dilly's Chilis Seed Co. and this again is one superb chilli! These are stunning, and I almost start feeling guilty for saying one of his last chillies was not good. But hey I am not a salesman, what I don’t like I tell. But this one is superb really. The kids urged me to buy new seeds, for they want to take these chillies as a snack, or should I call them peppers for they have no heat at all. I don’t care, they are fantastic, and I want to see my kids taking them to school next year. Imagine them eating chillies at lunch on school, I bet they will get more than a few surprised looks !

Yours sincerely,

Bart J. Meijer

Taste report Ethiopian Brown

I am ashamed to say I don’t know who offered me those seeds, but I do have to say thank you !
The name got a bit puzzled and I had to see what came out. There are 2 varieties that closely resemble each other, the Ethiopian Brown and the Berber Hot chilli. After the fruits started to form, it was obvious; it really is the Ethiopian Brown as the pods form hanging down. The Berber hot, is growing up, so got that covered and the name has proven to be right.

This plant forms irregular, a bit wrinkled pods that slowly sort off fold out to a point you might think they will get totally smooth, but they don’t. Funny looking chillies that stay green a long time, then start to slowly show some brownish red or reddish brown. If the sun is covered with clouds, they really are brown, but if the sun gets to them the red shines through the brown. Stunning, almost looking like a chestnut that just dropped with the husk split showing the lovely colours inside. I tried to catch this colour in a photograph, and this took me a long time, but they are beautiful.

It seems to be a rather rare chilli and it is huge. Most measure 12/15 cm and 3/4 cm wide. Unfortunately I can not find too much about them, other than being used in the Berber kitchen. Stews and such, slow roasts pots and being roasted they seem to have multiple uses.

When digging in, I noticed this is a complex chilli to taste and describe. I never go for looks, and try not to be fooled by appearances; I am not the best looker either even though I got good taste. This chilli without any doubt has dark tastes, combined with good sweets, and even a hint of chocolate. Now this said, I started to doubt myself; did I get fooled by the looks? You know, the association one has with looks, so tasted it again. I was pretty sure, but as a check gave my wife a bite, without telling what it was. She doesn’t know too much about chillies but her first comment was; is this chocolate chilli?
So, she had the same idea, without knowing what it was. The basic tastes this chilli has are: sweets, fruits, herbs, ground tones and a slight but very pleasant bitter. This is why I had the idea of chocolate, milk chocolate, the bitter you find in chocolate and sweet coffee.

The one down-point from this beautiful chilli is its skin; it is rather tough or hard. Looking at the taste and its odd but beautiful appearance, it is a need to have chilli I would not mind roasting and peeling. In a mortar it would make a great pepper paste, adding a bit of sea salt and a touch of garlic.
This chilli is great dried as well, with its taste not changing that much, so would make great flakes or powder.
Enjoy!

Sincerely yours,

Bart J. Meijer