There’s a new hottest pepper in the world

This week, on the YouTube show Hot Ones, Ed Currie, a chili pepper breeder and founder of the PuckerButt Pepper Company, showcased the hottest pepper in the world – Pepper X.

🌶️ How hot are we talking?... Pepper X, in addition to being Elon Musk’s favorite pepper, measures an average of 2.7 million Scoville Heat Units (the Scoville scale was created in 1912 to measure how many times capsaicin – the substance responsible for the burning heat taste – needs to be diluted).

The previous record holder, the Carolina Reaper (also developed by Currie) averaged 1.6 million SHUs. For context, a jalapeño measures between 2,000–8,000 SHUs, while a serrano can range between 10,000–23,000 SHUs.

There are only five people in existence that have eaten an entire Pepper X, Currie being one of them. The experience?

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

🥵 Looking ahead… As a proprietary blend, Pepper X won’t be sold to the public. Meaning the only way to introduce your taste buds to unbearable pain that hurts so good (and your body to potential cramps that don’t hurt as good) will be through sold hot sauces.

🤔 Fun fact: Much of a pepper's heat is concentrated in the interior white placenta that holds the seeds, not the seeds themselves.