Blood Ghost Pepper

Sweet and distinctly fruity up front, with light smoky depth and little of the floral note typical of red ghost peppers. The burn is a classic chinense creep rather than an instant spike.

Blood Ghost is a modern Capsicum chinense hybrid of Red Ghost Pepper and Pink Tiger, selected for dark ornamental plants and a fruitier, less floral take on ghost-pepper flavor. Unripe pods are near-black or green-black; they ripen to a deep dark red or maroon, often mottled with black patches, and keep the thin, wrinkled skin of the Bhut Jolokia family. Plants are productive and container-capable, with dark purple to black stems and foliage, and usually reach about 3.5–4 feet. Heat is superhot—typically cited at 800,000 SHU and ranging from about 600,000 to 1,000,000 SHU—so a little fruit goes a long way in sauce, powder, or stew. The line is largely stable after a decade of grow-outs, though an occasional plant can drift back toward a plain red ghost.

Jason Schwartz of Toadstool Gardens in Owatonna, Minnesota, crossed a red Bhut Jolokia with Pink Tiger—an Italian ornamental superhot that itself comes from ghost pepper and Pimenta da Neyde. The first plants appeared around 2013; he released the line a few years later after it had settled. Pink Tiger’s anthocyanin-heavy parentage shows in the black-mottled fruit and purple-black stems, while the ghost side supplies wrinkled pods and superhot heat. Schwartz highlights a sweet, highly fruity flavor with almost none of the floral note that turns some people off classic ghosts.