Pockmark Cream
An Australian Capsicum chinense superhot bred by Jason Richards and named by Alice Lennard. Pockmark Cream is a Pimenta da Neyde × Bhut Jolokia selection whose dark-leaved plants carry pockmarked pods that ripen from deep purple to cream and peach with purple splotches, at about one million Scoville units.
Growing
~100 days to maturity
Fruit size
3.5–5 cm
Flavor & Use
Fruity and peach-like with citrus and light earthy notes, then a slow-building ghost-pepper burn that lingers.
Culinary
About
Pockmark Cream is a rare Australian Capsicum chinense from Jason Richards’ Pimenta da Neyde × Bhut Jolokia cross, named by Alice Lennard. Plants carry the near-black foliage of the Neyde parent and set pendant, wrinkled, thin-walled pods that start dark purple and finish cream to peach with purple splotches — the pitted skin that gives the Pockmark line its name. Catalogs treat it as a sister of Pockmark Orange and Pockmark Peach; color can still vary pod to pod. Heat sits in the ghost-pepper class, about 800,000–1,000,000 SHU, with no published HPLC for this color form. Yields are described as good. Use sparingly in sauce, powder, or ferment, and handle ripe fruit with gloves.
Backstory
Jason Richards in Australia crossed the dark-fruited Brazilian Pimenta da Neyde with Bhut Jolokia (ghost pepper) and selected this cream-to-peach phenotype; Alice Lennard named it. The same parental cross produced Pockmark Orange and Pockmark Peach, which differ mainly in ripe color. Neyde contributes anthocyanin-dark foliage and purple staining; the ghost parent contributes naga wrinkling and superhot heat. Seed has circulated through specialist catalogs, and some vendors still describe the line as only partly stable.