The Carolina Reaper Was Just Dethroned as the World's Hottest Pepper—Meet Its Competition

The new pepper variety is about twice as hot as the Carolina Reaper.

If you can't get through a meal without dabbing hot sauce onto your dish, you likely know that the Carolina Reaper has been recognized as the world's hottest pepper for years—until now that is. The reigning champion was just dethroned by a small green-and-yellow pepper coined Pepper X, according Guinness World Records.

The new world's hottest pepper is grown by Ed Currie, founder of Puckerbutt Pepper Company, who also created the Carolina Reaper. To measure the intensity of Pepper X, officials at Winthrop University in South Carolina, used the Scoville Scale, which is used to measure the spiciness of chilli peppers. According to Guinness, it is based on the concentration of capsaicin, which is an active component of chilli peppers and causes a burning sensation when it touches human tissue.

Pepper X measures an average of 2.693 million Scoville Heat Units, while the Carolina Reaper has an average rating of 1.64 million SHU. For context, a jalapeño can have a rating of between 3,000 to 8,000 SHU. Even Currie felt the pain when he tried Pepper X. "I was feeling the heat for three-and-a-half hours. Then the cramps came," Currie told the Associated Press. "Those cramps are horrible. I was laid out flat on a marble wall for approximately an hour in the rain, groaning in pain."

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Currie unveiled Pepper X during a recent episode of Hot Ones, a show where celebrity guests attempt to eat rounds of chicken wings coated in hot sauce. He told the host of the show that Pepper X has been in his back pocket for about a decade, but he was waiting to introduce it until another pepper breeder attempted to rival the Carolina Reaper. "No one's been able to take us out, so I decided to bring it out to the world," Currie said about Pepper X.

During his appearance on Hot Ones, Currie was awarded with a plaque from a Guinness World Records adjudicator, officially recognizing Pepper X as the hottest pepper in the world. "This is the culmination of a lot of work by a lot of people," said Currie. "People said it couldn't be done, they called us liars, and we proved to them that Pepper X is actually the hottest pepper in the world."

As of right now you can try Pepper X by purchasing one of PuckerButt’s Pepper X-infused hot sauces, wing sauce, or salsa. No seeds will be released until Currie can guarantee his intellectual property is protected—an issue he ran into with the Carolina Reaper. According to the AP, more than 10,000 products use the Carolina Reaper name, or its other intellectual property, without permission.

Read the original article on Martha Stewart.