BK Ghost Pepper Rant

So, I had to run to Grand Rapids last night to pick up a used flywheel for my mower. I felt lucky to find this thing because it's got a plastic ring that matches mine and I don't have to buy a new pinion gear for the starter to match it and it's close enough to pick up and NOT have to wait for shipping.

Anyway, I decide I'm going to grab a burger on the way down because I'm pressed for time and I haven't had Burger King in a quite a long while.

As I pull up I notice a panel on theboard advertising a "Ghost Pepper Burger" and I'm curious. Now please note that I am an average Caucasian Male with average Capsacin tolerance. I'm not looking for an eye watering, mouth peeling, anus burning experience. But I thought I'd try something different, and not having Ghost Peppers before, I was interested in seeing how they tasted.

Now let's get right down to the review.

First, this is one of those long BK burgers, in which they place two burger patties between the long chicken sandwich buns. On the patties they place lettuce, ranch dressing, and hot peppers.

The first bite and I'm not terribly impressed. I get a bit of pepper flavor, but no real heat. I'm thinking I must have missed the peppers. I take another bite, this time sure to get a chunk of "ghost pepper".

NOW I get a bit of pepper flavor! I get some heat too. I carefully taste the pepper flavor to see if I like it.

Huh. It tastes like pickled Jalapenos. A few more bites and the heat is coming up nicely. It peaks out at just above where I would prefer it. Not THAT hot, but very warm and probably just below the tear inducing stage for me.

And it tastes just like pickled Jalapenos.

I wish I could have liked it more, but there were a couple of problems. Firstly, this could easily have been named the Hot Jalapeno burger. I couldn't discern any difference between this flavor and the pickled Jalapenos I'm use to using at home from a jar. I have no idea what Ghost Peppers taste like, but I'll be disappointed if they taste just like Jalapenos.

Secondly, there is plenty of ranch, peppers, and lettuce, but I think the burger could have been better balanced with a second layer of burger. I've tried to find this burger on the Internet to be sure I'm not misremembering the ingredients, but I can't find it. Apparently then they sell a "Ghost" pepper burger, it's invisible. Maybe Reed City, Michigan is hosting a trial food for them.

At any rate, I did manage to eat the whole thing and enjoyed it somewhat. I did not have to resort to eating the fish sandwich I also bought as backup in case I could not eat the Ghost Pepper thing.

And I'm pleased to report that I did not suffer any after-effects this morning. I did have a bit of heartburn last night from laying on my right side, but I attribute that to my eating chips and french onion dip before bed and washing it down with an Oddside Ales "Firefly", a papaya and habanero Pale Ale. (I guess I was just feeling adventurous yesterday!) Review of that Oddside beer to be found later in the beer review forum!

2 Tums and turning over cured my heartburn and bad dreams.

Summary: I cannot recommend the Ghost Pepper burger to anyone looking to test their manhood using Scoville units. It DOES, however, fit the need for most people in heat. The flavor is ok and the texture could be improved with a second layer of beef patties. I found the flavor mundane, as to me it tasted just like pickled Jalapenos.

And it's Burger King; a low-grade option for when you are in a hurry (But not too big a hurry, judging by the wait times I've had there compared to some other fast food places) and want to slum it a little.

If you are into fast food I think it's worth trying. If you are into hot food, it's worth trying. if you are mildly curious, I can't recommend it.

I dont think they were ghost peppers!
I can not imagine BK serving something as hot as a ghost pepper. Thinking they just call it that.

My uncle used to grown them in his garden (probably still does, I just aint askin).

I remember the first year of his crop, he plucked one off a plant, we each took a fingernail sized piece of the pepper. No heat, we looked at in disappointment. With in 15 seconds the heat hit us both. Tongue felt like it swelled to triple its size.
We sprinted across his yard to his kitchen where we tore apart his kitchen for crackers and bread.
We ended up sitting on porch, each panting from the commotion. Quietly we sat eating plain bread and chucking Genny Cream ale.
Darn pepper was fierce!!!!

Ghost peppers do not taste like jalapenos. They don't exactly look the same either.

Did you look at the peppers? Did they look like jalapenos? Perhaps they used pickled jalapenos soaked in some kind of weak ghost pepper extract?

Or perhaps they used pickled ghost peppers, which may have toned down the spice level and would've added that pickle flavor.

I loathe pickled peppers on food. They're better than no peppers, sure, but given the choice, give 'em to me raw, or grilled, or sauteed, or fried.

I don't know if BKs here are selling it. BK is usually my last choice for fast food. I've just never been that much into it.

I enjoyed McD's jalapeño burger while it lasted. Not too mild and not too spicy. However, I do not recommend sneezing with a bite in your mouth. It sent a piece of jalapeño up into my sinuses. That sucked.

Buddy, I do not know what you ate, but it was not a Ghost Pepper. Those things are so hot that it is a painful, very painful experience. I'm from Texas and cut my teeth on jap peppers, serranos, chilli petins...all of which are pretty spicey. My one experience with Ghost Peppers left me gagging, choking, and hacking for air...never again. I doubt Burger King or any chain would serve real Ghost Peppers. a real Ghost makes a Habenro pepper seem like an ice cream cone!

I also think most folks that do cook with them are sadists who use them to cover up other bad flavors....kinda like some brewers that use 196 ozs of hops per batch!

They looked JUST like pickled sliced jalapenos from a jar. Tasted just like it too.

I'm not opposed to BK when I'm in the mood, but most of my family prefers McD's if we do fast food. I wish McD's had some other choice besides their fries for a side. I'm not a fan.

I do like BK's onion rings, even if they are not nearly as good as good onion rings.

When I was a kid my friend had a small houseplant. It had tiny red and green peppers growing on it. He said to try one. I declined. He said to try the green ones because they were sweet before they got ripe and they weren't hot.

So I took what I now think was a Tabasco pepper from the plant and chewed it up.

Then sat at their table eating bread and drinking milk for twenty minutes while they laughed.

I should have known that bastard was pulling a joke on me!

Mismost said:

Buddy, I do not know what you ate, but it was not a Ghost Pepper. Those things are so hot that it is a painful, very painful experience. I'm from Texas and cut my teeth on jap peppers, serranos, chilli petins...all of which are pretty spicey. My one experience with Ghost Peppers left me gagging, choking, and hacking for air...never again. I doubt Burger King or any chain would serve real Ghost Peppers. a real Ghost makes a Habenro pepper seem like an ice cream cone!

I also think most folks that do cook with them are sadists who use them to cover up other bad flavors....kinda like some brewers that use 196 ozs of hops per batch!

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I agree, that's why I was curious.

I can't find any information about BK's offering, but Wendy's has a Ghost Pepper chicken sandwich and Ghost Pepper Fires. Both of which list Ghost Pepper "Sauce" as an ingredient.

The sauce is supposed to contain dehydrated ghost peppers, and I assume this means they grind that sht up and use a VERY tiny amount of it in a whole lot of sauce.

I think that's what's going on over at BK. They use a very tiny amount of GP in a sauce (The ranch sauce they put on it, maybe) and a bunch of jalapenos to make it look like you're a badass and just ate a bunch of the killer peppers without sweating.

I've always taken "Ghost Pepper" fast food items with a grain of salt. There is too much liability in handing something like a ghost pepper to someone. Especially in US culture where you can sue for spilling hot coffee on yourself. Labeling things as "Ghost Pepper" has become a fad to indicate spicy, but it gives a poor name to the pepper itself.

My local Kroger traditionally has dried ghost peppers in with the produce, maybe you can find some around you to try the real thing.

Ghost Peppers are brutal little beasts that can make a grown man cry. It's become tradition to pass out dried ghosts to interns at my work. To get them to eat them, a friend and I will also go along with it. Needless to say people are running to the store for ice cream after.

My 2 favorite things I've done with Ghost Peppers have to be:
1) A wing sauce for a cookout at an old job (6 Ghosts, 1 lb Habenero, and Vinegar w/ capsaicin). I served drops on the wings, and many men acting tough left with tears in their eyes.
2) Ghost Pepper and 7-pot powder Truffle Brownies. Did this for a heat challenge event for friends. Only one guy even got that far (something about ghost pepper pizza [sauce and topped with] before hand didn't help). That guy had a hard time, and he has been known to eat them straight.

Vamptrump said:

My 2 favorite things I've done with Ghost Peppers have to be:
1) A wing sauce for a cookout at an old job (6 Ghosts, 1 lb Habenero, and Vinegar w/ capsaicin). I served drops on the wings, and many men acting tough left with tears in their eyes.
2) Ghost Pepper and 7-pot powder Truffle Brownies. Did this for a heat challenge event for friends. Only one guy even got that far (something about ghost pepper pizza [sauce and topped with] before hand didn't help). That guy had a hard time, and he has been known to eat them straight.

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both my mouth and eyes started watering after reading this.

Wendy's sells "ghost pepper"'stuff here, and it's not, not by a long shot!

Yeah, I agree with everyone else. The peppers you had on your burger weren't ghost peppers -- probably just the standard pickled jalapeños. They likely used a sauce that had some negligible amount of ghost pepper added (like a drop of concentrate added to 50 gallons of sauce) just so that they could *technically* call it a ghost pepper burger and cash in on the trend, without having to actually feed real ghost peppers to folks whose palates are accustomed to, well, burger king.

On a different note, I was in a specialty store the other evening that exclusively sells hot sauces, and they gave me a sample of straight pureed Carolina Reaper chiles. It burned my mouth, but the craziest part was going home, going to bed, and waking up an hour later with a racing heart and the sweats as my body attempted to digest this stuff!

Homercidal said:

I can't find any information about BK's offering, but Wendy's has a Ghost Pepper chicken sandwich and Ghost Pepper Fires. Both of which list Ghost Pepper "Sauce" as an ingredient.

The sauce is supposed to contain dehydrated ghost peppers, and I assume this means they grind that sht up and use a VERY tiny amount of it in a whole lot of sauce.

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Ding-ding-ding-ding
We got a winna!

I've had the Wendys burger/fries and they are milder than the Dairy Queen Habenaro flame thrower burger.
Fast food places won't give anyone anything much hotter than Franks red hot.
If you want a spicy burger,bring in your own frsh peppers and slap it on a burger. The fast food chains just love mixing w/e ingredient is the hot topic of the month and blending it with 90% mayonaise.

We use ghost pepper sauce in our Bloody Hot Marys - and by that, I mean, I shake the bottle, stick a toothpick in it about 1/8", and swirl it around in the pepper vodka in the bottom of the glass! That stuff will take your head off if you get too much of it. So yeah, I'm guessing any ghost pepper in that burger you got was negligible at best.

My fave hot burger is that dang Carl's Jr. - Hardee's El Diablo. I crave it. I love it. I want it weekly.

Per their website: "A Charbroiled 1/3-lb 100% Black Angus Thickburger with Jalapeno Poppers, Pepper-Jack Cheese, Fiery Habanero Sauce, Bacon Strips and Sliced Jalapenos on a Fresh Baked Bun."

Few weeks ago I was in the Bahamas. We were taking a bus back from the resorts to the airport. We passed a BK that had a sign for a Nacho Whopper. My Buddies and myself begged the bus driver to stop. Even offered to by him one. Didnt happen!
(for the record our BK had never had anything like this)

Local Micro Brewery allows you to do infusions with any of the beers on tap. You can choose, coffee, fruit, citra hops, or GHOST PEPPER. They take a dried pepper, grind it down and put into a french press with the beer.

Homercidal said:

I wish McD's had some other choice besides their fries for a side. I'm not a fan.

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You monster.

I missed Homerdical hate on McDonald's fries. Between Wendy's, Burger King, Arby's, and every other fast food restaurant, McDonald's is easily the worst.

Vamptrump said:

I missed Homerdical hate on McDonald's fries. Between Wendy's, Burger King, Arby's, and every other fast food restaurant, McDonald's is easily the worst.

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Right? So plain.

Wendy's were pretty good until they switched to "homestyle", or whatever they serve now. I still prefer them to McD's.

I really liked Hot-N-Now's fries, but alas and alack, they are not in business near me anymore.

Arby's is pretty good, but I generally always get curly fries, so that doesn't count.

I like my fries either wedges, like homemade thick cut, or double fried and crispy on the outside and mealy in the middle. I can find those 2 styles at most brewpubs.

I had the Popeye's "Ghost Pepper" wings, and they were meager at best. I expected as much. When advertised as "taste the mystery of the Ghost Pepper" and not "experience the firehole of the Ghost Pepper" you know it's going to be tame. I'm guessing it's a very tiny shred of pepper, enough to barely feel it but technically say it's there. The irony is, it might convince some sap that they can handle the actual pepper in which case they're in for a very rude awakening.

I've brewed with ghost peppers (one gallon of smoked porter w/ a whole ghost pepper in secondary, or another gallon of same smoked porter with a whole jalapeno, serrano, habanero, AND ghost pepper in secondary, that one was a face-melter), eaten em straight, and had plenty of foods with them in there (for anyone in the Mid-Atlantic, there's an ice cream shop in Rehoboth DE that sells ghost pepper ice cream that's really good). They most definitely do not taste like a Jalapeno. If anything, the flavor is closer to a Habanero. Very much fruity, and less vegetal "pepper" flavor. They actually taste great. And yeah, like mentioned, the heat is not instantaneous. You get a great flavor, and then the heat builds and after maybe 20 seconds your entire upper digestive system (at least anything with nerves) is on fire.

I received a Carolina Reaper plant as a gift earlier this summer. It is growing in a 5 gallon bucket and already has several small peppers on it. I'm not a pepper head, but growing it just to see what they end up looking like. I have no idea what I'll do with the peppers. Way too many Scovilles for my tastes. In any case, I'll be wearing rubber gloves when handling them. Maybe someone around here wants to do a pepper beer?

This is a Ghost Pepper a friend gave me last year that I froze. We sliced one and tried it and it had a very nice sweet flavor sand then the heat came. Let's just say that I could feel the heat even an hour later in my stomach. I love spicy food and I am kind of known for it in my group of friends but you couldn't pay me to eat any amount of this without at least a couple of ice cold beers on standby by. Those suckers are hot and even if you like hot food I wouldn't suggest it.

David

Vamptrump said:

I missed Homerdical hate on McDonald's fries. Between Wendy's, Burger King, Arby's, and every other fast food restaurant, McDonald's is easily the worst.

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MONSTER!!!

MaxStout said:

I received a Carolina Reaper plant as a gift earlier this summer. It is growing in a 5 gallon bucket and already has several small peppers on it. I'm not a pepper head, but growing it just to see what they end up looking like. I have no idea what I'll do with the peppers. Way too many Scovilles for my tastes. In any case, I'll be wearing rubber gloves when handling them. Maybe someone around here wants to do a pepper beer?

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Uhhhh.......

YES PLZ.

Seriously. Want. I've wanted to try the Reaper, but my wife cannot even handle jalapenos, is worried about simply touching it and getting overwhelmed, and as such I am banned from growing hot peppers.

Those are too much scoville for just about anyone's taste. That's pepper spray grade heat.

Vamptrump said:

I missed Homerdical hate on McDonald's fries. Between Wendy's, Burger King, Arby's, and every other fast food restaurant, McDonald's is easily the worst.

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I disagree. In-N-Out has the worst fries. It's like they are only half cooked. The only way to make them tolerable is to get them twice fried, but that makes them too crispy.

I usually avoid McDonalds like the pluage so it's been a long time sinse i've had their fries. That being said they aren't bad.......
IF you gettem right out of the fryer.
(asking them to not be salted will achieve this, they put way too much damned salt onnem anyways) the MOMENT they cease to be hot....they're trash. Needz ketchup too.

Qhrumphf said:

The irony is, it might convince some sap that they can handle the actual pepper in which case they're in for a very rude awakening.

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I'd actually like to see said awakening.:rockin:
:smack::smack:

Temptd2 said:

Per their website: "A Charbroiled 1/3-lb 100% Black Angus Thickburger with Jalapeno Poppers, Pepper-Jack Cheese, Fiery Habanero Sauce, Bacon Strips and Sliced Jalapenos on a Fresh Baked Bun."

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Carl's is one of the few fast food places that actually understand that the younger generation doesn't want the same old bland crap. Granted the El Diablo burger isn't "hardcore" heat, but it's got enough heat to get your attention. In fast food, even that's rare.

What annoys me is Del Taco and Taco Bell having hot sauces with names like "Inferno" that are a half step above mild. When I pull up to the drive thru and my response to whether I want hot sauce is "yeah, the hottest stuff you have", that's a DARE. These places should have a few packets of something hot enough to teach pricks like me a lesson.

bwarbiany said:

Carl's is one of the few fast food places that actually understand that the younger generation doesn't want the same old bland crap. Granted the El Diablo burger isn't "hardcore" heat, but it's got enough heat to get your attention. In fast food, even that's rare.

What annoys me is Del Taco and Taco Bell having hot sauces with names like "Inferno" that are a half step above mild. When I pull up to the drive thru and my response to whether I want hot sauce is "yeah, the hottest stuff you have", that's a DARE. These places should have a few packets of something hot enough to teach pricks like me a lesson.

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Swing over to this side of the country, and hit a place called "District Taco", and ask for the salsa they keep behind the counter (not with the other salsas) advertised only in tiny letters in the corner. One of the few commercial establishments that's not a hot-sauce-gimmick place (or a place with wings that has gimmicky hot wings) to have something that packs a punch. It's mostly habanero pepper.

Nando's XX Hot sauce also packs a punch (but I can't get them to use that as the sauce instead of the regular extra hot, which is a good firm medium). Mostly piri piri pepper.

I would love to grow a mild ghost . Love the flavor better than habanero. Just so damn hot you loose the flavor. Popeyes chicken claimed a ghost pepper chicken. It was ok did have ghost taste a lil, not much heat. The Dairy Queen Flamethrower burger is pretty good,unless its 95 and your working outside.

bwarbiany said:

What annoys me is Del Taco and Taco Bell having hot sauces with names like "Inferno" that are a half step above mild. When I pull up to the drive thru and my response to whether I want hot sauce is "yeah, the hottest stuff you have", that's a DARE. These places should have a few packets of something hot enough to teach pricks like me a lesson.

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Taco Bell around here had a sauce called "Diablo" for a few weeks.
It was indeed hot but unfortunately...tasted bad.
I beleive it had a lot of red habs in it and i preffer the orange.
There might be a surplus of the stuff around somewhere but.......
Why not just carry a bottle of "El Yukateco" around with you everywhere?
It's cheap and sold in many places around the USA now.