Guinness World Records: ‘Pepper X’ named as world’s hottest chilli pepper

‘Pepper X’ has now officially broken the record for the world’s hottest chilli pepper. It was shared by the Guinness World Records on their website. Pepper X has taken away the title of the “hottest chilli pepper in the world” from the Carolina Reaper. The latter had held this record since 2013.

Origination of Pepper X

Pepper X was grown by Ed Currie, who is the founder of Puckerbutt Pepper Company in South Carolina, USA. He is also the same person who first grew the Carolina Reaper.
He unveiled the chilli in an episode of the popular YouTube series ‘Hot Ones’, where the Scoville score( it is a tool for measuring the spiciness of chilly pepper) was examined by Winthrop University in South Carolina by comparing it to other popular peppers and was found as the hottest chilli in the world.

What makes Pepper X so spicy?

The Pepper X is around 500 times hotter than a jalapeno. What makes it spicy is Capsaicin, an active component of chillies. The extensive curves and ridges of a Pepper X chilli create more surface area for the plant placenta and locules to grow and retain capsaicin, adding to the intensity of heat experienced when it is eaten.

More on Pepper X

In general, the Scoville heat units (SHU) of a common chilli is around 5,000, but this Pepper X has a SHU OF 2.69 million which makes it hard for anyone to eat it. Ed Curry has spent more than 10 years in the field cross-bleeding Pepper X with other hottest peppers to enhance its spiciness.