Supermarket ones are pretty dire after you have tasted the real thing but a good introduction, dont overcook them if grilling, they need some fat remaining, there is so much fat in supermarket ones that you would have to forget and go out for the afternoon before they would be too dry but easy to do and hard to judge with boucherie ones.

On that subject be wary of the supermarket boucheries when they suddenly have lots of merguez at a promo price préparé en magasin, merguez is the final stage for meat that is on the turn.

I like to think I can stomach spicy food, many magnitudes hotter than what the average Frenchie would be calling Samu after tasting but in the Épicerie Arabe it seems to be on another level, they asked me if I wanted standard or épicée and I chose the latter, they said are you sure and I explained I wasn't French! The first kg I bought were much hotter than supermarket ones and just how I like them, the second lot blew my head off and gave me a Johnny Cash bottom, no way could I eat those again so I reverted to standard which were I reckon milder than the first lot.

Either they made a mistake with the piment on the second lot or the first time they gave me the standard ones because they thought, correctly as it turns out, that despite my wishes I could not cope with the épicée ones.

So this is a question which LeDolly can probably answer, are proper indigenous merguez super relevée?