What came out of that heated alliance was a chili pepper that looks as devilish as its name.
![ghost vs reaper pepper ghost vs reaper pepper](http://gentlemint-media.s3.amazonaws.com/images/2015/08/15/f841a137.jpeg)
Vincent – known for a “nasty” heat – with Pakistan’s Naga Viper pepper. The South Carolina-based longtime pepper grower developed the deadly Carolina Reaper pepper by crossing a La Soufriere pepper from the Caribbean island of St.
![ghost vs reaper pepper ghost vs reaper pepper](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/l-BUf-v6TDo/maxresdefault.jpg)
For a long time, the honor of world’s hottest pepper went to the Ghost Pepper of India – a naturally growing variety that regularly clocks just shy of 1.5 million Scoville heat units.īut apparently, “Smokin” Ed Currie wasn’t scared of no ghost. It wasn’t always the natural order that landed the Reaper on top. The Carolina Reaper even blows away the competition for world’s hottest pepper, with second place currently going to the Komodo Dragon Pepper, which has the capsaicin firepower to come up with around 1.4 million SHUs. Even other peppers regularly thought of as too hot for most people to handle make up just a fragment of that astronomical total – like the habanero, for example, which weighs in at a still-unbelievably-hot-but-somehow-not-even-close 350,000 Scoville heat units. And if that number sounds mind-boggling – it is.įor comparison, the jalapeno pepper that serves as chief tongue-pricker on so many stacks of nachos, pulls in a comparatively paltry 5,000 – 10,000 SHUs. On the Scoville scale, which measures chili pepper spiciness, the reaper clocks in no less than an astounding 2.2 million SHUs, or Scoville heat units. That’s right, the Carolina Reaper is officially certified by Guinness World Records as the world’s hottest pepper.
![ghost vs reaper pepper ghost vs reaper pepper](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/fW-eF7Eini8/maxresdefault.jpg)
Blue Oyster Cult may want us to believe that we shouldn’t fear the reaper – but we’re pretty sure they weren’t talking about the hot pepper.Īs the reigning world champion of hottest hot pepper, the chili delivers a devilish amount of heat to the tongue – with a spice so lethal it’d put that other black-robed reaper to shame.