Habanada - Sweet Pepper

Fantastic flavor. Hot flavor without the heat. Fruity. Some tastes almost like mango or melon. The first couple I tasted really caught me off guard. With the first bite, your mind leads you to believe it is going to be hot but the heat never comes. You even get that same sort of feeling on your lips as a habanero but it doesn't burn. Half of mine died before they made it to the garden. Probably my fault because I started them 3 months before taking them out and I did not give them any sort of fertilizer. Next year I will be giving them some half strength fish fert. after the first set of true leaves form.

I was very curious about this pepper since I had never heard of such and love the flavor of hot habaneros. Easy to germinate but very sloooooow growing in the early stages (I was hesitant to top these plants), but boy, these plants really take off and bush out when it gets very hot outside (July). Short, bushy, and prolific production from then on! I still have yet to see an orange pepper on the plant (it started production in early-mid July and is now mid-August) but even the green peppers have that oily, fruity taste just like a habanero with zero spice or heat, quite impressive! I will definitely grow these again next year.

Compact bushy plants are about 2ft tall and wide and LOADED with peppers! They do take a while to turn from green to orange, but worth the wait. The orange color is a vibrant, bright, almost day glow orange. The first couple we tried were good, but had a bit of spice to the seeds. Might be because they're next to our Sugar Rush Peach peppers. After the first small harvest, the heat was gone and we haven't experienced it since. The Habanada pepper has a "candy" like sweet flavor that is extremely unique in a good way, but quite difficult to describe. Either raw or saute'd, these peppers add a great flavor to any dish! PRO EATING TIP: cut off the top of the pepper, remove the seeds and veins and stuff a blackberry down into the pepper and enjoy. So delicious! STATS: transplanted seedlings on 2.19.19. First ripe pepper harvested 6.4.19. So far have harvested 450 peppers from 4 plants, 128 from a single harvest and the plants are still going strong well into our hot, humid Florida summer.

I live in a hot climate that is quite humid. All my very-hots and my super-hots grow great. Jalape?os & Hungarian Blacks and such struggle. The sweet peppers inevitably fail & die...especially anything of any size. Thus, my pepper production has been limited to the hot side of the equation. I don’t want to burn my face of ALL the time (OK, my palate & my endorphins do as I love the rush, but my body...read: gut...has to regularly remind me of my actual limitations). Enter: The Habanada. It grows strong and healthy just like my other hot peppers, only it’s not a hot pepper. It’s been a great addition to the garden, and the kitchen. Salads? Check. Snacking with dips? Check. Using as a practical joke tool? Check. Practical joke? All you have to do is ‘dare’ a friend to eat one. Eat a whole one in front of them w/fake contortions & convulsions. Goad them mercilessly “C’mon I did it!” The joke? All their sweating comes BEFORE they eat it. When they finally do, they hit you. FUN!??

So we have a lot of pepper disease here, most sweet peppers I've tried to grow get a pretty bad blight. These have had zero blight and the peppers are very tasty. I've only eaten them raw. YUM. I say if you're on the fence, grow them.