Taste review Monkey Face chilli

The Monkey face chilli was a medium hot chilli everybody talked about last years, so it was a need to have chilli for me. It was a bit of a slow starter, but that might have been me. I was sort off sold, when I heard it would be a great base chilli for sauces, so well a had to have. Now the plant has a lovely form, grows a bit like a tree. I like that, but I am not in this for looks, I want taste.
It is supposed to have sort of a Monkey Face in it, and I did see a few good photographs, but I didn't really get a good one. So not really a monkey face. Still the somewhat odd form and looks make it to be a great looking odd chilli. Sure I do like a good looking chilli, but I love to have a good taste as well. Now I heard that it was a good one to over-winterer as well, now that were all the pro's known to me.

So I had it grow for a year and last month I had one to taste. It taste is a bit complex, and I had to taste a few before I got it. The heat is direct, no surprises no build, no. You know what you are eating the first bite, so that is good to work with.
Basically it has sweet, a touch of bitter some herbs, fruit, and a wood like tone. Some say it would taste like mango, but then I would rather say a touch of pineapple as it has that wood tone as well. In my terms I would say, it has the sweets of a yellow bell pepper, the pleasant light bitter a red bell pepper has, and some herb with a wood like tone. Herbs between Coriander seeds or Turmeric. It is odd, this is a complex chilli with both fruits and herbs, lovely indeed. Now at the time I don't really know what to combine it with, so I left them to dry.

Dried they are a different ballpark, whole new story indeed. If you have them sundried or very slow natural ripened, they are out of this world !
They will get the sweet taste of sundried tomatoes, the sweet will also start to top over to the liquorice taste that you get in slow natural ripened chillies. The taste will stay complex and lovely and make you wonder what it is you are tasting. Really stunning, like this they can stand on their own making a great powder of flakes, or add them to your table salt grinder. The pleasant taste will linger on for at least 10 minutes, just lovely.

Yours sincerely,

Bart J. Meijer

Taste report Cumari se Crescente

I got this chilli from Dilly's Chilis Seed Co in the US to write a report about. In fact I got a good handful off 2 different ones all the way from the US to taste and write about. Now travelling half the world didn’t affect them, isn’t that cool?

the Cumari is below the knife

One of them was a bit of a disappointment, taste wise, but a stunning looker called the Capezolli di Skimmia. But this one is superb. It is a dead ringer for the Aribibi Gusano, but deep yellow. The Aribibi has one flower per axil and this Cumari with 3-5 flowers per axil. So it will give you more chillies, and maybe even better looks. This chilli grows up, erect so to say, hihi.
So I had to taste it and would not make the same mistake with this one as I did with the Aribibi, so I only tasted the very tip of it.

This going to be one short taste report for once, get it, you need this one as bad as you need the Aribibi Gusano.

top Cumari, bottom Aribibi

The taste to the Cumari se Crescente is close as I said, but more subtle. It has the chinense taste I talked about, a hint of citrus and the same heat. If you think the Aribibi is over the top, this is a step down in taste. Odd thing maybe, but I think these will combine with chocolate very well.
Handy little bugger to use, as it is easy to dose in a meal. Never eat a handful though, unless you are Ted Barrus !

Yours sincerely,

Bart J. Meijer

The next Korean heirloom chilli, Soobi Cho

This is the second chili I got from the Yeongyang County (Yeongyang-gun); an inland county in the north-eastern area of North Gyeongsang Province, South Korea.

Again I got very short and fast info:
The soobicho pepper is cultivated since the 1960s, with a hot and sweet taste. These chillies are susceptible to pests, so must be grown with great care. They have a low yield, and are now only grown in low numbers and small areas.

Ok, now that is a load of info isn’t it? I got a bit scared from the bit “susceptible for pests” so I put 4 plants totally isolated in the front yard, and 1 together with other not too special chillies in a different corner also away from my main crop.
So I waited and waited for pests to arrive, but none did. Now as I grow all my chillies in pots, with a mixture of 90% potting soil and 10% worm compost they hardly ever get pests. But this was funny, in the frontyard I even got aphids in tulips and onion sorts, but none whatsoever in the Soobi Cho. So no pests to be seen.

What also stunned me, these chillies, both the Soobi Cho and the Chilsoung Cho would have a low yield, and they do not. The plants bring loads of fruits, and some even tilt under the weight.

It takes a good while for them to ripen, but so do all the other varieties I have this year, so I would say they are normal. The first ones I tasted were odd, really a strange taste. They are sweet and fairly hot, about the heat of a cayenne or slightly more. The darn thing is from the first moment they remind me of tomato. Earlier in the year they really had a tomato taste, and later in the season they lose this more and more, but still keep reminding me of tomato. Now I work with a couple of great taste testers that have tested this one too, and they say the same.
Debating it again with them, we come to the conclusion that the chilli has this as it has some sour along with the sweets. Mainly it has the taste of sweet bell pepper with strong hints to tomato, is fairly hot. The flesh is slightly thicker than a Cayenne and the skin is somewhat tough. The acidity is faint but noticeable to all tasters. I think this is a stunning chilli to combine with the Chilsoung Cho for Kimchi pepper flakes making them a good step hotter. I think I will put them in my regular use flakes as well for their sweet and sour.. Fresh you can cook with them just fine, losing the acidity in seconds however. In a salad these are great used fresh !

Again proud of having a Korean Heirloom,

Yours sincerely,

Bart J. Meijer

Gordon Ramsay's favorite chilli

I contacted Mr Gordon Ramsay today.by Twitter.


I have to say first, this is my favourite chef in the world for sure.
Not only his cooking style, but even more like his leadership style, and the fact he knows and tells he loves to learn other cultures !
A person that says he can still learn is not stuck to the idea that they know it all!
Even though he is a real master-chef in optima forma!

What I like about his leadership style, is that he does not talk around the bush.
No politics and meaning something with what you say, trying not to be to harsh.
I thought the Dutch were the most blunt people, as they say so.
Being direct, is what I call it, what use does it have to chatter about something, if you can say it in 1 line?
That is what I love about Gordon Ramsay!
I like it when he says to an other chef; "Have you tasted it?"
Often the answer is; No.
Well, that tells where the problem is.
Keep it short, be direct, so no-one has to guess what you are saying.

He is passionate about food, and discovering new things.

That said, he must be very very busy, so I did not expect an answer for sure, just hoped.. . . .

So, back to chillies, I am growing over 105 varieties, trying to find great ones to taste.
So I was wondering what he would like best and asked..
Doesn't hurt to ask I'd say.

Low and behold, got an answer in minutes!
Mr Gordon Ramsay's answer was the Little Elf chilli.
Hot darn, having 105 varieties of chillies, he names one I don't have.
So, asking around, someone's got seeds for me to try and grow.
There you have the hippy like share thing again amongst chilli lovers.
Sure I do the same to, but still it makes me feel good, if someone offers without expecting something back!

Thank you chilli lovers,
and thank you Mr. Gordon Ramsay, for taking your time!

In search for more taste,

Yours truly,

Bart J. Meijer