Cortas Pickled Cucumbers

My wife found these in a middle-eastern grocery store and picked them up, knowing that I'm a pickle nut...er...reviewer.  From the jar, they look like ordinary dill pickles, but looks can be deceiving...

These are possibly the weirdest pickles I've ever tasted.  I honestly can't decide if I like them or hate them.  The ingredient panel says they have garlic (you can see the clove of garlic in the picture, too!) and green pepper and "spices".  You can definitely pick out the garlic, but the rest of the flavor is not objectionable, but its definitely different.  Even though these are vinegar pickles, they have a flavor that reminds me of the "musty-ness" of fermented pickles.  I'm convinced it has to be the green pepper, but there's an additional spice that is in the mix.

They are exceptionally crisp pickles.  Texture-wise, they're exactly what I like: crunchy, and not at all soggy, like some pickles can get.  These are not skinned at all, which may contribute to their excellent texture.  I think they were picked rather young, too, so they have a gerkin quality about them.

You know these are "not from around here", because they're really-really long and slender cucumbers.  As you can see, this is a tall-style jar, and they chose that style jar for a reason: these babies are LONG.  This makes for a single pickle that'll answer any craving you might have, but as with all things positive, there's a catch.  These pickles are devilishly hard to get out of the jar when you first open it.  They're packed in there very tightly, and because they're long, it only provides more resistance to being moved.  They were hard enough to get out that I actually scraped the skin off of one with my fingers in my attempts!  My wife was laughing at me until she gave it a try--same results.

These pickles are unusual and they taste good, but they're definitely in condiment territory, and not in the habitual munching class.  I still can't figure out whether I like them or hate them....