Pepper X is the new Guinness World Record holder for the hottest pepper. It measures an average of 2,693,000 Scoville Heat Units (SHU). This is more than one million units hotter than the previous record holder, the Carolina Reaper, which averaged 1,641,183 SHU.
Pepper X was bred by “Smokin” Ed Currie, the founder and president of the PuckerButt Pepper Company. Currie said that when he bred the pepper, he looked for something to raise the heat level to the maximum, and then flavor. Consumers can test Pepper X exclusively in the form of commercially sold hot sauce.
For comparison, a jalapeño measures just 2,000 to 8,000 SHUs, while a serrano can land between 10,000 and 23,000 SHUs. Pepper spray has 1.6 million SHU on average, and bear spray has 2.2 million SHU on average.
That officially makes it the hottest pepper on earth, dethroning the scorching Carolina reaper — also invented by Currie — which clocks in at 1.64 million on the Scoville scale.
It’s even spicier than pepper spray, which has a score of 1.6 million SHU. (For perspective, jalapeño registers approximately 3,000 to 8,000 SHU).
After eating one, Currie said he experienced a napalm-esque burn that lasted for over three hours.
“Those cramps are horrible,” lamented the South Carolinian, who is one of five people to try the scintillating chili. “I was laid out flat on a marble wall for approximately an hour in the rain, groaning in pain.”
It reportedly took over ten years to create this weapons-grade vegetable, made by crossbreeding a Carolina reaper and a “brutally hot” mystery species that Currie received from a friend in Michigan.
“We covered the genetics, we covered the chemistry, we covered the botany,” recalled the inventor while describing the process of engineering the perfect pepper.
Pepper X is by no means the end goal of Currie’s capsaicin-boosting campaign.
“It’s not the pinnacle,” declared the spiciness splicer, who plans to engineer peppers far hotter than his latest creation in the future.
Those formidable enough to brave the heat can visit their website to peruse and purchase products containing the record-breaking Pepper X.
