Pepper X - the hottest chilli in the world World record 2023 with 2.963 million SHU

Pepper X - the hottest chilli in the world
World record 2023 with 2.963 million SHU

On 16 October 2023, it was officially announced that there is a new world record for "The hottest chilli in the world".
Like the Carolina Reaper with 1.64 million Scoville, which held the world record for over 10 years, the new world record holder also comes from the PuckerButt Pepper Company in the USA. The new Pepper X was also bred by the founder and head of the company, Ed Currie, and his team.

Like the Carolina Reaper, Pepper X is a hybrid of the Capsicum chinense species.
With an average pungency of 2.963 million Scoville, it is over a million Scoville hotter than the Carolina Reaper and even Ed Currie issues a warning.
It took 10 years of intensive work to grow the Pepper X. Currie has repeatedly crossed the hottest chillies with each other to further increase the capsaicin content with the aim of setting a new world record. Capsaicin is the alkaloid responsible for the pungency of chillies.

The record chilli pepper has so far only been eaten by 5 brave people and, according to Ed Currie, this was not particularly fun. He himself spoke of a 3-hour burning sensation and subsequent stomach cramps, which put him completely out of action for an hour. He called the pain "horrible", i.e. dreadful and terrible.

He strongly warns people who are inexperienced chilli eaters not to resort to the hottest chillies in the world and take part in heat challenges.
According to Currie, you should start by slowly building up a tolerance for heat and only venture into hotter chilli varieties after a while.

Why the Pepper X?

Ed Currie was determined to breed a new chilli with a particularly high capsaicin content that would far surpass his Carolina Reaper, and he succeeded with the Pepper X. In order to keep increasing the heat content, it was necessary to breed 10-12 generations of chillies. The pungency test was carried out at Winthrop University in South Carolina and the new world record was set.

The appearance of the Pepper X

Pepper X has a pimply, furrowed surface. When ripe, it has a green-yellowish / mustard-yellow colour. Unlike the Carolina Reaper, it does not have a spine and reaches around 5 - 7 cm in diameter.
The exceptionally high capsaicin content is developed in the seed compartments of the pod. The extensive curves and grooves of a Pepper X chilli create more surface area for the placenta and the fruit compartments that contain the capsaicin, which increases the intensity of the pungency when eaten. There is an official warning that eating a Pepper X chilli can cause severe abdominal cramps.

Interesting facts about the sale of the chilli

The breeder Ed Currie does not want to sell the chilli as a plant, seed or pod so that it cannot simply be bred, but only sells it as an ingredient in the PuckerButt Pepper Company`s own sauces. Together with the sauce manufacturer Heatonist and the YouTube series "Hot ones", in which the new variety was also presented, he has created a hot sauce containing 91% Pepper X chillies.

Photo credits: By Jack - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0