I've heard of the Hatch chili and at one point a Wegmans had them special with a grilling Hatch convention. I did not try or buy them. I guess the flavor is good since you decided to grow them. Are they a mild pepper and what's the flavor like?

Mark

hatch is the town the chile is grown in and not the type of chile depending on heat level it usualy mild= numex 6-4 , medium = big jim and hot = barker and if you find xxhot which is almost never grown in hatch anymore its usually lumbre big jim is probably the most common hatch style chile and the best to eat too

Another thing to note is that unless you live in Hatch, what you are growing is not a Hatch chile :) Same thing as with e.g. Parmiggiano Reggiano and other widely popular regional products. I've never had a Hatch chile, and don't know if it's any better than what you get elsewhere, but the point of the brand is that the chile is grown exactly in that area.

I have also read that due to the popularity of the Hatch chile, there's more Hatch chile on the market than could ever be produced in Hatch - i.e. fakes. I have no idea how widespread this problem is, I just thought I'd mention it.

So this Romanian cognac that I really like is not actually cognac?

It may be - if it's made from the right grapes. Otherwise it's just a "cognac knockoff". Not that it necessarily matters, I'm not trying to be a snob here.

I realize that my example of Parmiggiano Reggiano is not the best one, because I guess you could use milk from the right cows and produce proper Parmiggiano outside of Italy.

The clue here is Terroir - "a sense of place". If Hatch chile gets its identity from Hatch's terroir, then you can't recreate it exactly anywhere else.