Peppers from Burma (Union of Myanmar).

[Luca dalla Tailandia 2]

I need to travel to Burma every three month but only lately I was looking for Chili peppers as well. I wasn't doing so before, because the special ambience and political situation just made me suspicious and careful. But after browsing around so many times, talking with many locals, I finally decided to go a little off road and looking for some "Spices". So firstly the pictures I took some (actually already 7) month ago. It shows the border town of Tachilek, bordering Nothern Thailand at the famous golden Triangle.

 

I guess it is interesting to get a glance on the general "ambience" of the country and have an idea how it feels to hunt spices

 

 

 

 

 

Left side most probably imported Thais (Cayenne type) - but on the right side the good stuff, the Burmese Peppers!

 

 

And here is what I have sorted out from the 750 Grams (of dry pods) that I bought from the pile of the right side.

 

 

 

Some of what I brought from that trip is growing, many are already ripe and luckily turned out to be what the dried pods looked like!

 

Furthermore, I just came back yesterday from another trip to Tachilek and brought some "new goodies"!

 

So - to be continued soon....

[Lonewolf 18,099]

Luca "the hunter"

Well done !

 

It seems you collected a lot of different varieties.

It's not only luck to obtain from seeds the same shape of dried pods; peppers bought in commercial sites often came from fields where a single variety is grown with no cross chance.

[Luca dalla Tailandia 2]

It's not only luck to obtain from seeds the same shape of dried pods; peppers bought in commercial sites often came from fields where a single variety is grown with no cross chance.

 

Right, I lately even said that to other people concerning Habañeros they bought from a huge producer. Yet, in such local places, some people actually sell the few pods, they grow (as mixed culture) in their own garden. Though, the bigger bunches (like in the picture) mostly come from huge plantations, where the role of little chance of cross-pollination applies again.

 

Annother aspect when we look at Burmese Chilies is that cultural and culinary roots mostly come from the Indian Continent (fewer chinese influences), even though nowadays the economic exchange is with (bordering) China. Yeah, a few (well probably 5-6) more hours of driving would bring me to the chinese border! Btw: the location (Tachilek) is here HERE on Googlemaps And Burma also borders Nagaland in the North-west, but that is annother story. To go there by car you need to be a sort of Indiana Jones...

[Luca dalla Tailandia 2]

OK, here is what I have got this time:

 

Dried and fresh stuff... some Annuum and also Frutescens:

 

 

 

 

These may be Thais, they are anyway from Cayenne type. Nothing fancy, but the variety on the left side is extremely hot, one can notice this when opening the bag. On the right side (red circle) these are the few fancy-ones that came in that package.

 

 

Anyway, I am quite happy with what I found so far

[may 5]

it's 8 years on now and i wonder how you got on with growing the Burmese chillies? I grow a number of types myself in the UK, from whatever i find anywhere in Myanmar with a nice taste. Quite unique, there are no names for them since western websites do not feature them. One wild variety seeds itself vigorously and grows to nearly 4 feet high. Another is a creamy white type. Wish I knew what they are, but they're mighty tasty as well as being a good heat.

 

 

[nipotastro 1,341]

interestimg!

 

have you any pics of flowers?

 

the third is unusual...maybe an interspecifici cross?

 

 

the others should be frutescens even if i ever seen frutescens with uprised pods

[Gutter 3]

I travelled to Myanmar in 2012 with a friend of mine and a fair amount of trekking throughout our two weeks there. 

 

The hospitality of the people was amazing, so when we would go out we'd try to carry "gifts" with us  just in case we were invited for  tea, a meal, etc. Our first hike started in Kalaw and ended in Inle Lake. It was a short overnighter and our guide arranged for us to sleep in the home of a family. We brought tea as a gift, but learned after our meals that chili would have been better. They cook with copious amounts and it made me salivate wanting to have what they prepared for themselves. They unfortunately thought westerners had soft palates. And I only saw preparations while watching the mother make breakfast on the fire. 

So good. 

 

From there on out, we decided to carry fresh chilis and tea bought from the markets that strolled into town in the very early hours of the morning. For the most part the selection was of the cayenne and bird variety. However as we went north and east, though not too far in either of those directions, we started to find the variety that you have here in this picture at the 3 o'clock position.

 

 

The best ones that we found were bought at market in a town called Hsipaw, and we were told that the name they go by there is phonetically pronounced mo myaw.  I'll have to find my notes to show how they wrote it in Burmese, but that may take a while since a now have two kids. 

 

Anyway, the point of this is to say that I love the heat and aroma of these truly unique peppers and am excited to find my people here. I don't grow them in my garden every year, but the 3rd generation of the seeds from that visit to Hsipaw are germinating right now. I'll post pictures of the different stages of development. 

 

[Lonewolf 18,099]

Nice report, thanks for sharing your experience.

[may 5]

Gutter, the chilies you refer to are called Moe Hmyaw ( မိုး ေမွ်ာ္)(hope the Burmese script comes through OK on your device) 

literally meaning looking up to the sky, which is what is supposed to happen when you bite a chilli that is so hot, you scream and look heavenwards. They are related to the naga richi so-called hottest chillies, but in my opinion the Moe Hmyaw is hotter than the naga richi. I ate a tiny little piece a few millimetres long, and it took half an hour to recover. And I am a seasoned chilli eater as well as being a Burmese exiled here in the UK for decades.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Moe Hmyaw grows in my UK conservatory and the tiny plant yielded 5 fruit this year, though I just didn’t have the guts to eat them. Hope my pictures come through OK. Have put the Burmese spelling of the name in writing on the picture of the fresh one.

[Gutter 3]

May, this is awesome, and what an appropriate name for a chili! Though I'm not convinced that what I've been growing is what you've got pictured, i love the story and your country. 

 

I'll post pictures of the plant, flowers, and fruit of this growing season, and we'll see if it matches. 

 

Thanks for your post!

 

[Lonewolf 18,099]

17 hours ago, may said:

(hope the Burmese script comes through OK on your device) 

 

 

Yes

 

17 hours ago, may said:

literally meaning looking up to the sky, which is what is supposed to happen when you bite a chilli that is so hot, you scream and look heavenwards.

 

I grew something named "Facing heaven", but it was a C.annuum and I supposed the name was given because fruits grow upwards.

 

17 hours ago, may said:

They are related to the naga richi so-called hottest chillies, but in my opinion the Moe Hmyaw is hotter than the naga richi. 

 

Interesting.

Did you taste the Naga too, to compare them?

It would be nice to see photos of the inside of the fruits, if available.

 

 

[Oban 9,284]

On 3/11/2018 at 1:42 AM, may said:

Gutter, the chilies you refer to are called Moe Hmyaw ( မိုး ေမွ်ာ္)(hope the Burmese script comes through OK on your device) 

literally meaning looking up to the sky, which is what is supposed to happen when you bite a chilli that is so hot, you scream and look heavenwards. They are related to the naga richi so-called hottest chillies, but in my opinion the Moe Hmyaw is hotter than the naga richi. I ate a tiny little piece a few millimetres long, and it took half an hour to recover. And I am a seasoned chilli eater as well as being a Burmese exiled here in the UK for decades.

 

The Moe Hmyaw grows in my UK conservatory and the tiny plant yielded 5 fruit this year, though I just didn’t have the guts to eat them. Hope my pictures come through OK. Have put the Burmese spelling of the name in writing on the picture of the fresh one.

 

On 3/11/2018 at 3:06 AM, Gutter said:

May, this is awesome, and what an appropriate name for a chili! Though I'm not convinced that what I've been growing is what you've got pictured, i love the story and your country. 

 

I'll post pictures of the plant, flowers, and fruit of this growing season, and we'll see if it matches. 

 

Thanks for your post!

 

In this season I had the pleasure of cultivating Naga Myanmar, an excellent cultivar from all points of view.
I don't know if you find similarities with other peppers of extreme hotness grown in those areas, here's my documentary sheet of Naga Myanmar:

 

https://www.pepperfriends.org/dbpf/naga-myanmar_001.asp

[may 5]

Congratulations. They are indeed the Moe Hmyaw ( မိုး ေမွ်ာ္) variety that I wrote about before. The trouble is, I did not get to enjoy the underlying taste of mine because the heat was too intense. I hope you enjoyed yours.

M

[Oban 9,284]

Thanks, I added "Moe Hmyaw" to the synonyms, to add Burmese Naga I'll wait further confirmations and I hope to be able to cultivate it in the future.

 

4 hours ago, may said:

The trouble is, I did not get to enjoy the underlying taste of mine because the heat was too intense. I hope you enjoyed yours.

 

I ate them fresh and I really appreciated them, perhaps one of the best SuperHot ever.
You can try to taste the powder, it is equally exceptional even if it is very spicy.

[may 5]

In fact the full Burmese name for this chilli is 'Kalar Aw Moe Hmyaw' - which literally translated means it's so hot that even the Indians scream and look up to the heavens. This is because in Myanmar, everyone thinks of the Indians as being people who can eat very hot food. However, this chilli is so hot that even they can't take it!

 

If you really appreciate the taste of chillies, there is a small variety I brought back from Inlay, in the Shan States, Myanmar years ago. They are my all time favourite for a really herby fruity deep sort of taste. They are very hot, but not in the league of Moe Hmyaw. I have never tasted anything so good in any Thai, Burmese or Indian shop. There are now about 30 of the descendants from my original fruit that grow perennially in my conservatory. I seem to have only got one picture of them in their red state - attached here together with green ones. Not significantly different looking from many others you might find in any asian shop, but the taste is completely unmatched.

 

Also attached - a bunch of Moe Hmyaw in their semi-ripe state bought from a hawker on the boat to the delta, and a very unique and tasty white variety for which I have never managed to find a name. It looks a bit like those lemon things in South America. Pictures combined and resolution lowered to fit in here.

 

All plants are perennial in Myanmar and more or less so in my conservatory in the UK.

M

 

 

 

M

[Oban 9,284]

Wow, beautifull chili peppers, congrats.

 

 

21 hours ago, may said:

In fact the full Burmese name for this chilli is 'Kalar Aw Moe Hmyaw' - which literally translated means it's so hot that even the Indians scream and look up to the heavens. This is because in Myanmar, everyone thinks of the Indians as being people who can eat very hot food. However, this chilli is so hot that even they can't take it!

Are these fruits grown in UK from seeds of Moe Hmyaw taken in Myanmar?

Stunning!

 

Quote

If you really appreciate the taste of chillies, there is a small variety I brought back from Inlay, in the Shan States, Myanmar years ago. They are my all time favourite for a really herby fruity deep sort of taste. They are very hot, but not in the league of Moe Hmyaw. I have never tasted anything so good in any Thai, Burmese or Indian shop. There are now about 30 of the descendants from my original fruit that grow perennially in my conservatory. I seem to have only got one picture of them in their red state - attached here together with green ones. Not significantly different looking from many others you might find in any asian shop, but the taste is completely unmatched.

The pic on the right and the one on the left belongs to the same plant?

 

The image doesn't show the details of the flower useful for a certain identification species of capsicum, but in my opinion it could be a Capsicum frutescens: the acute angle between petiole and corolla is typical of this cultivated species.

 

Identifying the specific variety instead is much more difficult, if not impossible.

 

 

Quote

Also attached - a bunch of Moe Hmyaw in their semi-ripe state bought from a hawker on the boat to the delta, and a very unique and tasty white variety for which I have never managed to find a name. It looks a bit like those lemon things in South America. Pictures combined and resolution lowered to fit in here.

 

All plants are perennial in Myanmar and more or less so in my conservatory in the UK.

 

M

This too could belong to the species C.frutescens.

 

Thanks for your post M!

[Oban 9,284]

In any case, if you particularly care for these peppers originating in your place of birth, the Pepperfriends Association also deals with the protection and conservation of historical and autochthonous varieties (when it is possible) so if you are interested in sending or exchanging some of these your seeds, in the future we could cultivate them, replicate them in purity and keep these varieties for the future.

 

Just to give you an example, is what we did for the historical Chinese variety Shabu Shabu, a C.chinense closely related to Naga Morich and Naga Myanmar, replicated by seeds extracted from fruits purchased in a local market and shipped from China!

 

I would be interested in growing Moe Hmyaw from local seeds, in futures.

[may 5]

Oban, I have come back to this site a bit late, I’m afraid. Got distracted by various overseas trips and other issues for the last three years, most notably, the massacre being perpetrated by the military junta this year. Unable to return to Myanmar while that is going on, I have turned my attention back to growing chillies in my U.K. conservatory. Am just raising some more Moe Hmyaw and other varieties accumulated over the past three years. If they are any good, are you still interested in some seeds? I’ll send pictures of the fruit beforehand. Currently dealing with lots of nutritional deficiencies and balancing issues but they are just beginning to take hold now.