World Record Pepper Brings Serious Heat

by Kevin Burton

   We’ve got a hot story for you today. Record hot.

   It’s also news I can use, but I’m not going to.

   The BBC reports that the Guiness Book of World Records has certified Pepper X as the hottest chili pepper in the world. It has surpassed the Carolina Reaper chili pepper, which has held the record for ten years.

   Those who know me well know I love the hot and spicy foods. That will not change but I will not be pursuing Pepper X in any form.

   Just how hot is this Pepper X?

   “For comparison, a habanero pepper typically hits 100,000 Scoville heat units, but Pepper X registers at 2.69 million units,” wrote BBC reporter Chloe Kim.

   Breeder and grower Ed Currie created both record-breaking peppers, Kim reports, and he has learned some marketing lessons in the ten years since the Carolina Reaper was introduced.  As a proprietary pepper, Pepper X pods and seeds will not be sold.

   “Currie cultivated Pepper X for a decade on his South Carolina farm, but remained tight lipped about his project to protect his intellectual property,” Kim wrote.

   “This was a team effort,” Currie said in a statement. “We knew we had something special, so I only let a few of my closest family and friends know what was really going on.”

   “In lab tests at Winthrop University in South Carolina, Pepper X registered an average of 2,693,000 Scoville Heat Units (SHU), which is more than one million units hotter than Currie’s previous innovation, the Carolina Reaper which averaged 1,641,183 SHU.”

   “In 1912 pharmacist Wilbur Scoville invented the Scoville Scale, which measures how many times capsaicin needs to be diluted. Capsaicin is the chemical that gives humans that burning sensation of peppers – which can release dopamine and endorphins into the body,” Kim wrote.

   “After overcoming drug and alcohol addictions, Currie started growing peppers as a hobby and says peppers act as a natural high.”

   “Though people tend to believe the spice of a pepper comes from its seeds, capsaicin is contained in the placenta, the tissue which holds the seeds. Because of Pepper X’s curves and ridges there is more surface area for the placenta to grow, according to the Guinness World Records,” Kim wrote.

    Currie is one of only five people who has eaten an entire Pepper X.

   “I was feeling the heat for three and a half hours. Then the cramps came,” Currie told the Associated Press.  “Those cramps are horrible. I was laid out flat on a marble wall for approximately an hour in the rain, groaning in pain.”

   Thank God Pepper X wasn’t available when I was younger. I might have been stupid enough to try one.

   Only once have I backed down from the challenge of the heat of a sauce or pepper.

   It was years ago at the annual Jazz and Rib Festival in Columbus, Ohio. A company called Johnson’s Ribs was the hottest thing going at the festival, in more ways than one. 

   I remember standing in a long line for their ribs, while the booths on either side of the Johnson’s booth had just a few customers. 

   When I got close to the front of the line I could read the signs, which said pregnant women could not eat their hot sauce and there was a release form some people had to sign.  I think a parent had to sign for minors.  Anyway, I thought that was all hyperbole.

   It was not.

   That sauce lit me up, loosened a few things, cleaned out my sinuses, upon first bite.

   “What are we gonna do,” asked a beep baseball team mate who was with me, also admitting defeat. 

   “We could wipe off the sauce and just eat the meat,” I said, and that’s what we did.

   Other than that, I’ve handled the best that restaurants can offer, including the Blazin’ sauce at Buffalo Wild Wings.

   Pepper X though, no thanks.

   “Currie said Pepper X is a crossbreed of a Carolina Reaper and a ‘pepper that a friend of mine sent me from Michigan that was brutally hot,” Kim wrote.

   “Currie’s lawyer said 10,000 products used the Carolina Reaper name, without permission. In an effort to protect his intellectual property and see profits this time, Pepper X pods and seeds will not be released.”

   “The only way to taste Pepper X will be through sold hot sauces.”