Ají Cachucha

[luca]

Hi,

Has anyone ever tried to grow Ají Cachucha? I know someone from Cuba who said this specimen is very common in Cuba and is used in many dishes.  It's a sweet chile that looks a bit like a habanero.  Does anyone have more information?

He once brought a cachucha plant to Finland, but it died :-(

I noticed that Fatalii has Ají Cachucha in his seed lists.  Do you have any for sale?

Cheers,
Luca.

[Fatalii]

I sell seed packets with several different varieties, if interested, contact via email: fatalii@sci.fi

[luca]

It seems that I will finally manage to get some Ají Cachucha seeds! :-)

Has anyone here been growing them? Are they early or late? I mean, it's already quite late in the season, so do you think I could still get some good results for this year?

How tall do they grow? Are they compact? If that's the case, then I could grow them indoors under some artificial lights and it wouldn't matter how late I would start ;-)

[Fatalii]

I have plants from my last seeds growing (2).
Both germinated are doing quite fine.

They're flowering at the moment.
They seem to be quite compact even for C. chinense.

I flower them as early as possible so the yield might be quite small but it'll be enough for tasting and to preserve some seeds.

I'd say they're early for a C. chinense but late compared to other early chiles.

There will be pictures on my incoming updates soon.

[luca]

Great! So I'll probably give it a go under artificial lights this year still :-)

Looking forward to seeing your pictures! I'm a big fan of your site and I'm always going back to check when you've posted some new pics ;-)

BTW, is there any "sweet habanero" kind of pepper among those seeds I got from you?

[Fatalii]

You mean like a heatless habanero ?

There's several, Numex suave orange and red, and numerous seasoning peppers for example.
I really love those as a vegetable and seasoning when you don't want it deadly hot.

If I got it correctly, Aji Cachucha should be quite mild but not heatless.

Glad to hear you like my site!!

[luca]

Yes, I meant heatless (or almost) habaneros.

I heard from my Cuban friend that Cachuchas are very habanero-like flavoured and they hardly have any heat.  So, yes, they should have traces of capsaicin, but real chilli eaters probably don't feel any burning at all.

My main goal, besides making some cuban dishes, is to serve them to some friends who think chiles are just about the heat.  They say "you make it so hot that I'm sure you can't actually feel any taste!"

Bummers! They don't understand that habs actually have a wonderful taste, beside the wonderful heat! ;-)

[Fatalii]

Yes, that's actually very common thought about peppers.

Trinidad seasoning pepper had a quite strong taste too, but absolutely no heat, one of my favorites!

I'm actually planning to grow more different kinds of mild chinenses next year, I have a huge list of mild chinenses somewhere, I try to locate it when I have some more time.
You can mail me about that later if you're interested.

I can say that my taste has really become much sharper after I started eating peppers.
I have eaten so hot food that it's almost impossible to eat but still, I could taste the food itself very well.

[Aji Inferno]

Everything you guys have said about the subject is very true... I just wanted to give a "thumbs up" to two wonderful c.chinense varieties: Aji Dulce (PI-543188) from Bolivia (no heat, sweet, very Habanero-like taste) and Aji Panca/Brown. The last one is very unique in many ways. It's a tall plant, a monster among most chinenses. The fruit are also very baccatum-like (Aji Amarillo -type), dark brown when ripe. There's little or no heat, and (this is strange!) no hint of "Habanero flavour" at all... No big wonder this often gets named as a baccatum! Still, absolutely delicious: sweet and quite similar, perhaps, to Poblano & Chilaca...

[Fatalii]

I germinated two PI 543188 plants and they turned out to be C. annuums.

So I might be interested in true PI 543188 seeds or cutting for the next season...

[luca]

I'm actually planning to grow more different kinds of mild chinenses next year, I have a huge list of mild chinenses somewhere, I try to locate it when I have some more time.
You can mail me about that later if you're interested.

I'm definitely interested.  I'm really keen on this kind of information, especially about tastes and heat levels of chiles.  I find it really hard to get good information on this subject, since taste is actually a very relative topic.  It would be great to experiment with different kind of mild chiles in order to find the best combination for different dishes.

I can say that my taste has really become much sharper after I started eating peppers.
I have eaten so hot food that it's almost impossible to eat but still, I could taste the food itself very well.

Yes, in fact, capsaicin stimulates the tasting buds in our mouth pretty much in the same way as salt does.  So besides having a very good taste in itself, chiles enhance the other tastes in the food!

I just wanted to give a "thumbs up" to two wonderful c.chinense varieties: Aji Dulce (PI-543188) from Bolivia (no heat, sweet, very Habanero-like taste) and Aji Panca/Brown.

Thanks for this information! I'll have to try to get hold of these varieties.  Hmmm... I'm already drooling with the thought of eating these raw as a summer/picnic snack ;-)

[luca]

Have you ever heard about "pimenta biquinho" or "pimenta de bico"?

This is a very common variety of non-pungent chinense in mid-west Brazil.  I've never seen or tasted it myself, but I've read lots of great comments about them.

Here is a (not-so-good) image I found:

[TheBigX]

Here is a (not-so-good) image I found:

Looks delicious   .

[luca]

I googled for some seeds and it seems that there is one guy (at least) selling pimenta de bico seeds in packets with 200-250 seeds.  I'm getting really tempted! :-) 200-250 is definitely waaaay too much for myself, so I'd probably have to distribute them among my "infernal friends" ;-)

Does anyone know what are the rules to "import" chile seeds by post into Finland? Are there any restrictions?

[TheBigX]

Does anyone know what are the rules to "import" chile seeds by post into Finland? Are there any restrictions?

Hmm... I found this publication at the customs website, telling (in Finnish) that only plants that are grown in fields and gardens, aswell as potato, is restricted. So I suppose it's legal to import chiliseeds...

[JartsaP]

Well, so far no-one has been interested in the contents of my seed packets from all over the world, I have ordered chile pepper and lots of other seeds from USA, UK, Germany, France, Canada and Ecuador (probably elsewhere as well, can't remember) without any trouble with customs or any other officials. Importing seeds to sell them is a different story, and I read in finnish garden forum that a rhododendron hobbyist had also to enlist as an seed importer to get his rhodo seeds through, but my own experience is that as long as the total price of the goods and shipment cost remain rather low (under 30 euros or so) there's no trouble no matter what's inside (of course excluding illegal stuff). Even in the case of this rhodo guy, he only had to fill some form and after that he should have no more trouble - and he told that even the custom people were very helpful with the issue.

[luca]

Okay, that's good! So I guess I'll buy some "biquinho" seeds :-)

Thanks once again for your help.

[luca]

I've just ordered one packet with 200-250 seeds of pimenta-de-bico (or pimenta biquinho) :-) I can't wait to get hold of them!

[Aji Inferno]

I germinated two PI 543188 plants and they turned out to be C. annuums.

So I might be interested in true PI 543188 seeds or cutting for the next season...

So, another of those cases...  Well, this one is a genuine chinense, no doubt about that - so I'll arrange you a cutting... An excellent variety with all the Habanero flavour but no heat.

[Aji Inferno]

I googled for some seeds and it seems that there is one guy (at least) selling pimenta de bico seeds in packets with 200-250 seeds.  I'm getting really tempted! :-) 200-250 is definitely waaaay too much for myself, so I'd probably have to distribute them among my "infernal friends" ;-)

Does anyone know what are the rules to "import" chile seeds by post into Finland? Are there any restrictions?

Somehow I don't think you´ll have to stick with all those seed for very long... Most likely, you'll very soon need more of them if the variety is any good! :-)