Dorset Naga

Species: Capsicum chinense | Origin: UK | Pungency: Super Hot

The Dorset Naga is a substrain of Naga Morich and was developed by Joy and Michael Michaud of Sea Spring Farm in West Bexington, Dorset, England. The Michaud's purchased a Bangladeshi Naga Morich plant from an Asian store in Bournemouth, England, and saved seed from the best and truest-looking chillies on the plant. The following year they grew their own plants and repeated the same process again, saving seed from the best and truest-looking chillies. They continued doing this for several more years and eventually they developed a distinctive, uniform and stable plant population that has now been recognised as a separate variety by the Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO). Some chilli growers believe that Naga Morich (Dorset Naga) and Bhut Jolokia (Ghost pepper) are the same variety, but this is incorrect. They may be close cousins but they are not the same variety.

The Naga Morich, also known as the 'Snake or Serpent Chilli', originates from Bangladesh and neighbouring Northeast India, which is home to the mysterious Nagaland and its indigenous head hunting Naga Warrior tribes who reside in the forests and who historically used to chop off the heads of their victims. Naga Morich chillies are used by the ethnic groups of Nagaland to spice up the local cuisine, giving it a distinct flavour and making it much spicier than the cuisines from other regions of India. It is also a chilli which is held in very high regard by the Bangladeshis, who often refer to it as the 'queen of chillies'. Naga Morich chillies can sometimes be seen at Indian or Bangladeshi grocery stores next to the checkout in a basket lined with a gold or silver coloured cloth, and they are typically sold at the green stage.

The Dorset Naga is one of the hottest chillies in the world and has an approximate Scoville scale rating of up to 1,221,000 Scoville Heat Units (SHU) for ripe fruit. In 2006, BBC Gardeners' World had a single fruit measured at 1,598,277 SHU, making it one of the hottest levels ever recorded for a chilli pepper at that time. The plants can be very prolific when grown under optimum conditions and typically grow to about four feet in height when in pots, but much taller when in the ground or in exceptionally large pots. The wrinkled, wedge-shaped chillies start green and ripen through orange and then to fiery red. They have they typical pimply skin texture (rough exocarp) that one would expect from a superhot variety, except it's not quite as pronounced when compared to some other varieties, and occasionally it can be almost absent. Dorset Naga chillies have a strong citrus-like aroma and a strong fruity flavour and are great for performing exorcisms and warding off evil influences.

Page published on: 4th November 2019