The ones in the supermarket more often than not taste like bell peppers. I have noticed this over the past few years and it seems to be getting worse with time. We used to get a dudd now and then but now we rarely find a hot one.
The solution of course, is to grow them ourselves. Well guess what?
The ones from the garden shops have the same problem so we started growing our own from seed. Well, guess what again?
This year's jalapenos grown from seeds advertised as hot are perfectly sweet. We sampled three different plants from different areas of the garden and they are all the same.
Is there any chance that your taste has changed? I've always understood the jalapeño to be a not-very-hot pepper. They're plenty hot enough for me, but maybe if you're really comfortable with really hot ones, the less-hot will taste like nothing much. I'm only thinking out loud -- no idea otherwise.
You're pampering the plants, and picking the peppers too early.
When buying jalapeños at the grocery store, look for peppers that have cracks in them, or are turning red. They will be the hotter ones because they are more mature and/or grown when the plants were more stressed.
When growing your own, leave them on the plants a while after they get big. Wait until they have stopped growing for maybe a week (or you can wait and pick them red)
Or the seed company may have mixed up the seeds and you really got one of those cursed mild jalapeño varieties.
I feel yer pain, little brother. A farmer down here in the chile capitol said that the chiles on the ends of the field that got less water were hotter. And to watch your variety. hth Edrena
I've been growing jalapenos from the same packet of Burpee seeds for five seasons now, those suckers are too hot, stick a fork in em and they'll melt the tines.
Hot, and big too:
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hot for me, I trade away most with my neighbor for his garlic and Yukon golds.
It's weird - before I grew jalapeños, I'd only tasted them out of jars, or at restaurants, maybe in salsa or cooked into other stuff. They never impressed me as hot at all. At home, when I want heat in the recipe, I use the cayenn peppers from the garden, fresh or dried. When I grew jalapeños, I figured I'd be getting peppers I could stuff, cook briefly, and woof 'em down like potato chips. Ha. Not.
Guess what, they're four times as hot when dried and crushed. The usual pizza parlor pepper sprinkle I can literally cover the slice and not feel it's too hot, but not with the ones I grew myself, they are too wicked to eat.
It certainly has changed but is not dead. This all started when I learned that my blood pressure was too high. One of the home remedies/internet factoids was that capsicum reduces blood pressure.
Up to that time, I abhorred hot food and considered it uncivilized and fit only for howling savages.
Well, after a concerted effort to modify my palate, it now takes a jabenero to really challenge me. However, a proper jalapeno still has that nice warm mouth feel and is not confused with the dudds I am referring to. They simply have no heat.
Last year we harvested from about now till frost and nothing changed. Most of them were duds and a very few were hot. We had to add a few jabeneros to each jar of pickled jalapenos to get a reasonably hot batch.
None of this had any effect on my blood pressure BTW but it has expanded my horizons.
It is worth a look at the peppers just for the heat ratings. Some are too hot hence the warning. Lost in space is right on is it not ? Their paper catalogue is informative just in case you have a crop failure.
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I'd suggest that the shift from sand lot playing to organized games has reduced the amount of exercise significantly. Practice on yada yada and game on Yada Yada not enough. "leave those kids alone" comes to mind . We played every day for hours and in winter it was ice skating and snow removal aka snow forts. Today young folks deal with less physical work, more hours though and sedentary entertainment. I suggest shaking your booty often is a cheap good thing. Fun too.
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