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There's spicy, there's hot, and there's Pepper X hot.
Pepper X, a new breed of chilli pepper, has been officially declared the hottest pepper in the world, beating the infamous Carolina Reaper.
The heat of these peppers is measured in Scoville Heat Units (SHU). On the mild end of the scale is Tabasco Sauce, which is between 2500 and 5000 SHU (see box below).
The Carolina Reaper, the recently dethroned hot pepper, is 1 641 million SHU and the new champion, confirmed by Guinness World Records is 2 639 million SHU.
But how hot is that in real-life terms? Just ask its creator, chilli breeder and farmer Ed Currie, one of only five people to have eaten the pepper raw – something he doesn't recommend.
“It took me about six hours to recover after eating Pepper X. When I ate a whole one, you get the flavour right away. But immediately that heat hits - and the heat, for me, was unbearable, he told the BBC.
It was almost an out-of-body experience, he said.
"It was kind of euphoric because I was getting an endorphin rush."
Someone handed him a milkshake to ease the pain but "that only made the heat increase" for another hour.
"I started getting cramps and, you know, your body perceives capsaicin (the compound in chilli that causes the heat and burning sensation) as a poison."
"Those cramps become unbearable – for a man at least. A doctor told me that it was akin to a menstrual cramp."
A few hours later, he said, he had some more peppers "because as my wife can tell you, I'm just an idiot."
"I wouldn’t recommend anyone do that unless you are crazy like me. But it’s perfect when you eat it as a hot sauce and mix it with other food.”
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Ed doesn't breed peppers simply to make super-hot sauces; they're also used in medical research, he explains.
Some medical studies suggest capsaicin – the compound in chilli peppers which causes the burning and irritant effect – acts as an antioxidant to protect your cells and can help reduce inflammation. Capsaicin, which causes pain, is also an important tool in the study of pain for researchers.
Breeding peppers requires cross-pollination of different plants, says Ed.
"We cross-pollinate plants that have the attributes that we’re looking for. If the resulting fruit has what we’re looking for, we take the seeds out and plant them again. If that comes out the same, that’s the first generation. It takes anywhere between eight and 12 generations to stabilise a plant.”
Creating a hot or super-hot pepper requires a lot of testing to confirm that it's been done properly, he adds.
“A lot goes into making the world’s hottest pepper. The first test for the Scoville is done in a chemistry lab and we must have genetic horticulturalists to do witness statements. The farmers are also required to do witness statements,” explains Ed. “Then third parties also get involved and Guinness verifies all that information and does their own testing.”
Heat in chillis is expressed in Scoville Heat Units (SHU), which represent the number of times the concentration of Capsaicinoids need to be diluted before it's no longer detectable.
For example, the jalapeno pepper is measured at 2,000-8,000 SHUs, which means it takes 2,000-8,000 dilutions for its heat to disappear.
Ed hasn't always been a chilli pepper enthusiast. His interest began when he was recovering from his alcohol and drug addictions, he says.
“At home, we always had the light peppers, like dried chilli flakes. But my love for hotter peppers took over in the 80s and 90s. I started breeding in 1999 and I’ve been obsessed since.”
He doesn’t only breed peppers, he also runs one of America’s biggest pepper farms.
“On the farm, I work with people that 'society' often thinks can’t be hired. I work with recovering addicts, I donate and help around the community.”
Through everything, he's been supported by his wife, Linda - who initially wanted nothing to do with him.
"But I heard she liked salsa," he says. "So I whipped up some salsa for a dinner I was going to that I knew she'd be at and she asked who made the salsa."
Nine months later they were married and the couple now have two children.
It was Linda who suggested they turn his hobby of growing peppers and making hot sauces into a business, and now, 20 years later, their company is one of the largest manufacturers of hot sauces in the US.
“I love hot peppers, but my wife can’t stand them. She hasn’t developed the same tolerance as me."
Ed, though, will eat peppers "all day long. If there's the right kind of dessert around, I will put something hot on my dessert."
EXTRA SOURCES: BBC.COM, LOVEMYCHILLIES.CO.UK
