Clearly, we don't need a pepper any hotter than that, but Ed Currie, the man who created the Reaper pepper, has now introduced a new and even hotter pepper named Pepper X. This new pepper boasts an astonishing 2.69 million SHUs, which is truly mind-boggling.
From CTV News:
Ed Currie, the South Carolina hot pepper expert who crossbred and grew the Carolina Reaper that's hotter than most pepper sprays police use to subdue unruly criminals, has broken his own world record with a pepper that's three times hotter.
Pepper X was publicly named the hottest pepper in the world on Oct. 9 by the Guinness Book of World Records, beating out the Reaper in Currie's decade-long hunt to perfect a pepper that he says provides "immediate, brutal heat."
Currie said when he first tried Pepper X, it did more than warm his heart.
"I was feeling the heat for three-and-a-half hours. Then the cramps came," said Currie, one of only five people so far to eat a entire Pepper X. "Those cramps are horrible. I was laid out flat on a marble wall for approximately an hour in the rain, groaning in pain."
Heat in peppers is measured in Scoville Heat Units. Zero is bland, and a regular jalapeno pepper registers about 5,000 units. A habanero, the record-holder about 25 years ago, typically tops 100,000. The Guinness Book of World Records lists the Carolina Reaper at 1.64 million units.
Pepper X's record is an average of 2.69 million units. By comparison, pepper spray commonly holstered by police is around 1.6 million units. Bear spray advertises at 2.2 million units.
Pepper X has been in the works since Currie last set the hottest pepper record in 2013 with the Carolina Reaper, a bright red knobby fruit with what aficionados call a scorpion tail. The goal was to offer an extremely hot pepper flavored with sweetness.
Pepper X is greenish-yellow, doesn't have the same shelf appeal and carries an earthy flavor once its heat is delivered. It's a crossbreed of a Carolina Reaper and what Currie mysteriously classifies as a "pepper that a friend of mine sent me from Michigan that was brutally hot."
Listen, I'm a fan of spicy food, but this level of heat is simply insane.
I can't, for the life of me, understand why anyone would want to subject themselves to this level of pain, except, I suppose, for bragging rights.
