In a fiery twist of culinary fate, a diminutive, wrinkly yellow-green pepper by the name of Pepper X has seized the throne as the hottest chili pepper globally, officially documented by the esteemed Guinness World Records.
Ed Currie’s Spicy Revelation
The mastermind behind this sizzling sensation is none other than Ed Currie, the visionary founder of PuckerButt Pepper Company, nestled in the heart of South Carolina.
To unveil this groundbreaking achievement, Ed Currie made a captivating appearance on the popular YouTube show, Hot Ones, where he not only received the prestigious Guinness award but also introduced the world to this incredibly spicy addition.
Quantifying the Heat with the Scoville Scale
Guinness World Records undertook the challenge of gauging the intensity of Pepper X by turning to the revered Scoville Scale. This century-old scale, developed in 1912, is the ultimate yardstick for determining a pepper’s heat.
It meticulously quantifies the concentration of capsaicinoids, the chemical compounds responsible for the fiery sensation.
Pepper X doesn’t just break records; it shatters them with an astonishing average of 2.693 million Scoville Heat Units (SHUs). To put this in perspective, a humble jalapeno clocks in at a mere 2,000 to 8,000 SHUs, while a spicier serrano ranges from 10,000 to 23,000 SHUs.
The former record holder, Ed Currie’s creation, the Carolina Reaper, averaged 1.64 million SHUs. Ed Currie aptly emphasized, “That scale’s logarithmic, so it’s more like three times hotter than a Reaper.”
The Intense Experience of Pepper X
Ed Currie paints a vivid picture of what it’s like to consume a whole Pepper X. “There’s an intense burn that happens immediately. Then your head kind of feels like, ‘Oh no! What’s going on?’ And then your body just starts reacting.
You get it in your arms, you get it in your chest.” Unlike the Carolina Reaper, there’s no instant throat burn, but that unforgiving sensation creeps in later, as you’re left in agony.
This powerful spiciness isn’t just in the seeds but primarily resides in the pepper’s interior white placenta, which cradles the seeds. Guinness reports that Pepper X’s unique exterior, with its distinctive bumpiness, creates more room for this potent placenta to flourish.
