Devil's Tongue (White) Seeds

If you want habanero-level heat in a pepper that looks like nothing else in the garden, the White Devil's Tongue is a real find. It's a rare chinense with an unforgettable party trick: pods that ripen from lime green through purple to a creamy ivory white, tapering to a twisted, tongue-like point that earns the variety its devilish name.

Behind the looks sits a proper chilli. The heat runs firmly in the hot band, right up alongside the habanero, and it arrives quickly and lingers. But this isn't heat for its own sake. The flavour is bright and fruity with a distinct citrus, almost lemon-lime, character and a subtle sweetness, notably without the earthiness some hot peppers carry. It's often likened to a Fatalii, though a touch sweeter and smoother.

Its origins add to the mystique. The Devil's Tongue was reportedly discovered growing among habaneros in an Amish farmer's patch in Pennsylvania in the 1990s, a chance find much like the famous Red Savina. Nobody's entirely sure of its parentage, but its habanero heat and fruity character tell the story well enough. The white version is the rarest of the family and in genuine demand.

This one's for the grower who wants substance and spectacle. It's hot enough to satisfy, flavoursome enough to cook with seriously, and striking enough to stop visitors in their tracks. Those ivory pods also make wonderfully unusual pale hot sauces and powders. If you like your chillies rare, hot and good-looking, this is a cracker.

As a chinense, the White Devil's Tongue wants a long, warm season and a measure of patience, so getting the timing right matters, especially in NZ.

Start seeds indoors from late August to September. You can go as early as July with steady warmth, but there's no beating a cold windowsill, and chinense seeds sulk when they're cold. Give them the season they need.

If you like, soak seeds for 12 to 24 hours before sowing to soften the coat, then pat them dry. Sow two seeds per cell, about 5mm deep, in good seed-raising mix. Then give them consistent warmth around 20 to 30°C, ideally the warmer end. A heat pad earns its keep with chinense varieties. Pick one warm spot and leave the tray put, because steady beats spiky every time.

Patience helps here. Rarer chinense like this can be slow and erratic to germinate, sometimes taking up to 40 days, and the slow ones aren't dead, just unhurried. Keep the mix moist but never soggy and hold your nerve.

Once seedlings are up with a couple of true leaves, pot them on and keep them warm and bright. Don't rush them outdoors: wait until they're 100 to 150mm tall and all frost risk has passed, then harden them off over a week or so.

For their final home, go big. At least 20 litres, and 30 litres or more will reward you with a bigger plant and a heavier crop. Full sun, shelter from wind, and in cooler parts of the country a greenhouse or tunnel house makes the difference between a handful of pods and a proper harvest.

The White Devil's Tongue makes a sturdy, prolific plant that can reach well over a metre, so a stake is worth having once it starts loading up with those pale pods.

Pinch out the main growing tip early to encourage branching. It always feels wrong cutting growth off a plant you've raised from seed, but the payoff is a bushier plant with more flowering sites and a heavier crop.

Water consistently, keeping the soil moist but never waterlogged. Chinense varieties hate wet feet, and pots dry fast in a NZ summer, so check them daily once the heat sets in. Steady watering also heads off blossom end rot on the pods.

Feed with a tomato fertiliser once flowering starts. Chillies and tomatoes want much the same things, so there's no need to overcomplicate it.

Heat and sun are what this plant runs on. The warmer and sunnier its position, the better it grows and crops, which is why greenhouse growers get the most from chinense varieties in cooler regions. Up north, a sheltered sun trap outdoors does the job.

And like all chinense, it's a perennial at heart. Overwinter it somewhere frost-free, cut it back in autumn, and it'll come away again in spring with a head start on anything sown from seed. Given how slow this one is from seed, an overwintered plant is well worth the effort.

Count on your first ripe pods around 100 to 120 days from transplant. Chinense varieties take their time forming and colouring up, so patience pays off at this end too.

The pods make a striking journey, from lime green through a purple stage to a creamy ivory white, wrinkling slightly and tapering to that twisted point. Pick them at the white stage for the best flavour, when they feel firm and come away with a gentle tug. Use snips rather than pulling, since chinense branches are brittle and easily damaged.

Gloves on for this one. At habanero heat, the oils on the pod skin are enough to make themselves felt, and whatever your hands touch for the next few hours will remember it. Harvest with gloves, wash up after, and keep your fingers away from your face regardless.

The plant will keep flowering and setting fruit until the cold shuts it down, so expect a staggered harvest through late summer and autumn. Any pods still green or purple at season's end will keep ripening off the plant, or can be used as they are, just less developed in flavour.

For storage you've got options. Fresh pods keep a week or two in the fridge. They freeze well whole and can be used straight from frozen. And the pods dry well for a striking pale powder and flakes that keep for months in an airtight jar away from light. That ivory colour makes for genuinely eye-catching pepper products.

Make no mistake, this is a properly hot chilli, sitting at around 125,000 to 325,000 SHU. That puts it right alongside the habanero and Scotch Bonnet, and comfortably into serious heat: roughly 25 to 65 times hotter than a jalapeño, depending on the pod. It's hot enough to command respect, without tipping into superhot territory.

What makes it worth cooking with is the flavour underneath. The heat here is bright and fruity, with that distinctive citrus, lemon-lime character and a clean sweetness, notably free of the earthiness some hot peppers carry. Growers often compare it to a Fatalii, and it's this combination of real heat and clean, zesty flavour that makes it such a rewarding pepper.

As always, individual pods vary. Heat shifts with the season, the sun, the seed line and how the plant was treated, and a long hot summer generally produces fiercer pods than a cool damp one. The character stays constant, though: like most chinense heat it builds, blooms and lingers, so the first few seconds aren't the whole story.

Handle it with respect. Gloves for prep, ventilation when cooking it down, and keep pods away from kids and pets. When tasting anything you've made, start with less than you think you need, because you can always add more.

The standard chinense watch-list, with a couple of notes for a plant that loves warm, sheltered spots.

Aphids head for the soft new growth first, usually in spring. Squash small numbers or blast them off with the hose, and encourage ladybirds and lacewings to handle the rest. Whitefly thrives in a warm greenhouse, which is just where this plant wants to be, so yellow sticky traps and good airflow keep numbers down.

Spider mites are the one to watch in a hot, dry tunnel house over summer. Look for fine speckling on the leaves and webbing underneath. They love dry air, so an occasional misting and decent ventilation go a long way.

At the seedling stage, damping off is the main threat: fresh seed-raising mix, no overwatering, and a bit of air movement prevent most of it. Slugs and snails will take out young transplants overnight, so protect them until they've hardened up.

On the disease front, most trouble is water-related. Overwatering invites root rot, and erratic watering brings on blossom end rot, those dark sunken patches on the pod tips. Consistent moisture and free-draining mix prevent both. In still, humid conditions botrytis can appear on crowded plants, one more reason to prune to an open shape and give plants room.

Nothing here should put you off. A well-fed, well-drained, well-ventilated plant shrugs off most problems, and chinense are tougher than their exotic reputation suggests.

The White Devil's Tongue is a hot chilli with clean, citrusy flavour and a showstopping colour, and that combination opens up some fun in the kitchen.

Pale hot sauce is the obvious highlight. Those ivory pods make a genuinely unusual white or cream-coloured sauce, and the bright lemon-lime character pairs beautifully with citrus, pineapple or mango. It's a real conversation piece on the shelf, and delivers serious heat with a clean, fruity edge rather than an earthy one.

Powder is a close second. The pods dry to a striking pale powder that adds real heat and a zesty lift by the pinch, superb sprinkled over seafood, stirred into a marinade, or used anywhere you want fruity fire without the colour of a red chilli.

Fresh, the pods lift a salsa nicely and bring a clean, citrusy heat to marinades, particularly good with fish and chicken where that lemon-lime note shines. And because it's hot but not brutal, it's a genuinely usable cooking chilli rather than a pure endurance test.

Because it runs genuinely hot, treat it as a season-to-taste chilli rather than one to use by the handful. But used with judgement, its blend of habanero heat, clean citrus flavour and ivory colour makes it a standout, both on the plate and in the jar.