English
বাংলা
The story
Naga morich is a Capsicum chinense chilli from the hills where Bangladesh meets north-east India: Nagaland, Assam, Manipur and greater Sylhet. In Sylhet it is so common that, as one local report put it, a plant can be found beside almost every house. Commercial growing is concentrated in Jaintapur upazila, around Darbast, Nijpat, Fatehpur and Charikata, and at Haripur near Sreemangal, where some farmers tuck the seedlings in between rows of lemon trees.
The chilli became famous abroad in the 2000s, when British growers raised naga morich and its relatives from Bangladeshi and Indian seed and heat tests put them among the hottest chillies ever measured. Figures quoted range from roughly 800,000 to well over a million Scoville heat units depending on the sample and the method, many times hotter than an ordinary green chilli. The Dorset Naga grown in England was selected from naga morich, and peppers sold abroad as ghost pepper or bhut jolokia are close cousins, though growers treat them as distinct varieties.
At home in Sylhet, though, people rarely talk about records. They talk about smell. Picked green, naga morich has a fruity, almost floral fragrance that cooks value more than the burn. A tiny piece is rubbed into rice, sliced into dal, simmered whole in a fish or beef curry and pulled out before serving, or mixed with shutki. Ripe red chillies are hotter and lose much of that aroma, so most are eaten green or turned into pickles and sauces.
How to spot the real Sylhet naga chilli
A real naga morich is short and stubby, about the length of a thumb, with a rough, blistered, wrinkled skin and often a pointed tail. Fresh green ones are glossy and firm; ripe ones turn orange-red. The giveaway is the smell: cut or even scratch one and a sweet, fruity scent rises well before you taste anything. Smooth, slender chillies are ordinary varieties, however hot they are. Be careful when checking: wear gloves or wash your hands immediately, and keep fingers away from eyes. Bottled naga pickle varies hugely; look for a short ingredients list and a clear maker's name, and expect real naga pickle to be painfully hot in tiny amounts.
Buying tips
Fresh naga morich is most plentiful and cheapest in the winter months, when each plant crops heavily; in summer supply drops and prices climb. Ask the seller where the chillies were grown, when they were picked, and whether they are green or ripe. Green chillies bruise and rot if packed tight in plastic, so ask for a ventilated box or paper wrapping, and a delivery time of a few days at most. Chillies are often sold by count, so check whether the price is per piece, per hundred or per kilo.
Every Midmart shop charges its own delivery, so combining naga chillies from a Sylhet shop with tea or satkora from another means separate parcels and fees. Midmart does not collect payment or ship anything: you agree how to pay and how the parcel travels directly with the seller. Midmart cannot confirm a listing's origin, so ask, and judge by the answers.
Keeping it fresh
Keep fresh naga chillies dry, wrapped in paper inside a box in the fridge, and use them within one to two weeks; remove any that soften. For longer storage, freeze them whole in a sealed bag and slice from frozen, or make a pickle. Keep pickles in a dry, cool place and always use a clean, dry spoon.
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