Last year, I had about 80 pepper plants in the ground which yielded enough to help me through the winter :-) What I couldn't eat fresh I froze, canned, or threw into a home-made hot sauce. Below are the different varieties I grew last year (the heat levels are in scoville units):
Cherry
Not too hot, but very tasty. These generally got chopped up and turned into a mild sandwich spread. Heat Level: ~1,000
Hungarian Black
Heather brought this back from a trip to the nursery. They turned out to be pretty good - not too hot, but pretty cool looking. Heat Level: ~1,000
Mystery Pepper
I'm not too sure what these guys were - the label that accompanied it read "Hot ???" I figured I would give them a try. Good for stir frying. Heat Level: ~4,000 (complete guess)
Jalapeno
I've got quite a few jalapeno plants going this year. Nothing special, just regular jalapenos. Heat Level: ~6,000
Lemon Drop
Also known as Aji Limon, this little pepper actually tastes kind of citrusy and was one of my favorites this year. The picture honestly doesn't do the pepper any justice, seeing a ripe Lemon Drop makes it almost impossible to resist popping it into your mouth. I am going to have to find a hot sauce that features this pepper - nice and hot, yet oddly different. Heat Level: ~25,000
Red Mushroom
Heather brought one of these back at the same time as the Hungarian Black plant and said that this one was supposed to be pretty hot. Curious about what I was planting, I did a quick google search for mushroom pepper and was baraged with recipes for mushrooms and peppers. So, I started poking through pictures of peppers and had decided that it looked similar to an Aji Dulce which was supposedly like a habanero but without the heat. Well, once the first one ripened I wiped it off and started chewing... Definitely not a "without the heat" pepper, turns out this guy is pretty hot after all and caught me completely by surprise. It has a yellow variety that is commonly called a squash pepper. Heat Level: ~30,000
Golden Habanero
Nice golden orange habaneros and slightly larger than a typical hab. Nice and hot with that great caribbean fruity flavor! Heat Level: ~250,000
Chocolate Habanero
These are a bit hotter than your average habanero and has an almost smoky flavor. Heat Level: ~400,000
Caribbean Red
About twice as hot as a traditional habanero and has an amazing bright red color. These will really make you sweat! Heat Level: ~450,000
Bhut Jolokia
The Bhut Jolokia is a northeast Indian pepper, closely related to the Bangladeshi Naga Morich, and is currently regarded as the hottest pepper in the world. This baby of a pepper was one of the first picked :-) I'm definitely going to have to get some hot sauces with this pepper in it - it should be able to increase the heat a bit while avoiding the need to add all of those extracts that take away from the flavor. Heat Level: ~1,000,000