Chilli Review - Real Seeds' C. Baccatum "Dedo de Mocha"

I've decided to give each of my chilli varieties its own review post since I've been writing reviews for somewhere else.

The first thing to note about this one is that there are a number of apparently completely different varieties with this name. The ones I am growing and shown in those post are those available from Real Seeds  - I don't know anywhere else that absolutely definitely stocks this form. The name apparently means amputated or dead fingers or something of the sort so you can see how it could be applied to a few different types of chilli.

Anyway.....

This is a very strong growing, tall, upright, leggy plant that produces huge (see dollar bill comparison below) long wrinkled red pods. The pods are completely without heat. There is a hint of the rich aji flavour I've sometimes heard called smokey.

I basically use them as a subsitute for bell peppers - the taste is I think a bit better but the walls are obviously thinner so not withstanding the size you need a few to equal a normal bell pepper (1 pod is ideal for chucking in a one-person omlette or salad though). Probably my favourite use is cutting them in half lengthways and throwing them in a roasting tin with other veggies but I think it will grill or barbecue spectacularly too with a bit of olive oil.

Germination was very strong and the plants grew well. I would say that it has ripened very late; it was only in mid-october ripening in numbers but the plants still seemed very healthy. As a result it is probably worth starting this one nice and early. One other issue I have had is with some sort of insect eating its way into the pod. This may be more of an issue on this one as the pods are so big.

I've successfully overwintered these (the Real Seeds catalogue recommend giving this a go) and am hoping the result will be massive numbers of pods, early, on a big plant. My first pods this year are now ripening (May 2011)