I'm wondering if one can taste (not eat) the leaves of a C. annuum pepper plant before it flowers to determine if the fruit is going to be hot or not. Has anyone tried this already?

Yeah, I could just try it myself, and I might, but I haven't, yet.

What an interesting idea! If it was true, I wonder if you could detect the capsaicin early enough to see if your sweet-pepper seeds had crossed with a hot pepper, at seedling stage.

I've tasted the leaves before, since I read that they are used as seasonings, in some SE Asian areas. No heat in them, and nothing that I really liked, either raw or cooked, in annuum or chinense, so never really pursued it.

mo heat in the leaves. I have tasted them to see if I can taste hot sensation or not if I am questioning the plant... never found any of it to be hot. I have a couple superhots I can go try it on already knowing they are hot but I suspect not as the deer and tobacco worms find them appealing to mow off.

I found the question confusing as I know the leaves never contain it or if they do in such small amounts it is undetectable.
It is like the opium poppy the legal growing of them and manufacturer of the drug is done by harvesting the whole plant and extracting not just the top but all of it.

hmm so I guess my rather painful experience with hot pepper seedlings was an oddity or are Charleston Hots a different type of pepper?