There is a new number one hottie in town.
A sweltering South Carolina chilli named Pepper X has captured the Guinness World Record for the world’s hottest pepper, beating out former titleholder the Carolina Reaper.
“I was feeling the heat for three-and-a-half hours,” creator Ed Currie, the founder of the PuckerButt Pepper Company and a veritable Dr. Oppenheimer of peppers, told the Associated Press upon eating his creation, which was recognised by Guinness on October 9.
The greenish-yellow pepper was first unveiled on the web series “Hot Ones” in which celebrities were challenged to eat 10 hot wings with progressively hotter sauces as the culmination of Mr Currie’s decade-long arms race to create the world’s hottest chilli, the New York Post reports.
It’s safe to say he put his money where his mouth is: Pepper X packs a sweltering 2,693,000 Scoville Heat Units – the rubric that measures pepper spiciness based on their concentration of capsaicin (the active ingredient that creates the burning sensation).
That officially makes it the hottest pepper on earth, dethroning the scorching Carolina reaper – also invented by Mr 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 about 3000 to 8000 SHU).
After eating one, Mr Currie said he experienced a napalm-esque burn that lasted for more than three hours.
“Those cramps are horrible,” lamented the South Carolinian, who is one of five people to try the scintillating chilli. “I was laid out flat on a marble wall for approximately an hour in the rain, groaning in pain.”
It reportedly took over 10 years to create this weapons-grade vegetable, made by crossbreeding a Carolina reaper and a “brutally hot” mystery species Mr 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 Mr 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.
Are you daring enough to try the record-breaking 2.69 million Scoville Pepper X chilli?
This story was published by the New York Post and was reproduced with permission.