Carolina Reaper, Purple

Description

The Carolina Reaper, Purple (C. chinense) is the most dramatic-looking member of the Reaper family, and the part everyone photographs is the stage before it is ripe. As the pods develop they turn a deep, glossy near-black purple against dark stems — the classic Reaper skin, blistered and folded, in a colour the original never shows.

Be clear about what happens next, because most sellers are not: the purple is a developing stage, not the ripe colour. The pods break from purple into red and finish burgundy to dark red-brown, sometimes mottled, while the stems and calyx stay purple right through. Grow it for that transition — a plant carrying black-purple, half-turned and fully ripe pods at the same time is a remarkable sight.

One genuinely useful growing note: the purple is driven by sunlight. Anthocyanin production in the skin rises sharply with light exposure, and pods shaded under the leaves come out noticeably paler. If you want the darkest pods, make sure they are exposed.

The pods run 4–7 cm with the wrinkled, blistered Reaper surface and a stinger that varies from long to missing altogether, on medium-thin walls. The heat is Reaper-class, and here too it is worth being straight: no laboratory measurement of this line has ever been published. Growers and sellers estimate somewhere around one to 1.6 million SHU. For reference, the red Carolina Reaper’s lab-tested average is 1,641,183 SHU. Treat this one with exactly the same respect.

Flavour reports vary. Most growers describe it as fruity; some find it floral to the point of bitterness. It belongs in hot sauce, in ferments and dried to powder — though a powder made from ripe pods is red, not purple.

This line is not fully stabilised. Expect variation between plants in pod shape, tail length and foliage colour. The plants run 60–150 cm depending on conditions, set heavily, and ripen late, so start them early.

Categories: C. chinense , Super hot , Easy to grow