Guinness World Records declares Pepper X as world's new hottest chili pepper
It beat out the Carolina Reaper -- a pepper with a description declaring, "Those who don’t fear the Reaper are fools. It is painfully hot." -- for the Guinness World Records' title.
This pepper variety, photographed on Tuesday, October 10, in Fort Mill, South Carolina, is about 1,000 times hotter than the average jalapeño. (Jeffrey Collins/AP)
(CNN) — The Carolina Reaper has met its match.
Chili Pepper X has captured the spicy record as the world’s hottest, Guinness World Records announced on Monday.
The new pepper rates an average of 2.69 million Scoville Heat Units (SHU), according to tests performed by Winthrop University in South Carolina, beating the previous record holder, Carolina Reaper, which averages 1.64 million SHU, according to Guinness World Records.
The SHU scale to measure chili pepper heat was developed by American chemist Wilbur Scoville in 1912.
By comparison, the average jalapeño pepper scores between 3,000 to 8,000 SHU, according to Guinness.
Pepper X is grown by Ed Currie, founder of Puckerbutt Pepper Company in South Carolina. He also created the Carolina Reaper, which took the record in 2013.
Ed Currie holds up certification that his new Pepper X variety of peppers is the hottest in the world, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. (Jeffrey Collins/AP)
“Ed cultivated Pepper X on his farm for over 10 years, cross breeding it with some of his hottest peppers to increase its capsaicin content,” Guinness said on its website.
Currie first presented Pepper X to the world on an episode of the popular YouTube series, “Hot Ones.”
“Those who don’t fear the Reaper are fools. It is painfully hot,” reads a description of the dethroned pepper on the Puckerbutt Pepper Company’s website.
No word yet on how they describe a pepper that ranks 1 million more units on the Scoville scale than the Reaper.
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