"I ate Pepper X, the world's hottest chili: I collapsed on the floor groaning in pain."
Ed Currie
The King is dead, long live the King!
After 10 years of undisputed dominance, in August, the Carolina Reaper ceded the scepter of the world's hottest chili pepper to Pepper X, which had been talked about for some time. The son of the same hybridizer, the legendary Smoking Ed Currie, it has the appearance of a greenish unripe nut and has reached the impressive spiciness of 3,180,000 SHU (to be clear, the spiciness of the Carolina Reaper touched a high of 2,200,000 SHU and is comparable to that of some sprays used to defend against bear attacks). In second place in the new Guinness World Records ranking is Dragon's Breath with an intensity of 2,480,000 SHU. At the moment Pepper X is being grown in an undisclosed location and the seeds, it seems, will be available for sale only after obtaining international patent protection.
