That’s about 600 times hotter than a jalapeño pepper at 2,500–8,000 SHU and about 8 times hotter than a habanero, which ranges between 200,000–350,000 SHU. “His initial measurement was the hottest he’d ever seen,” Currie said.Īccording to Currie, the Carolina Reaper ranges between 1.5 million and 2 million SHUs, depending on the pepper and the growing season. ![]() It was 2005 when he teamed up with chemistry professor Cliff Calloway and his team of graduate students at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina. After a few successful growing seasons, Currie decided to find out where the pepper ranked on the Scoville scale, which uses Scoville heat units (SHU) to measure capsaicin. “I knew it was hot because when we gave them out to everyone, they started vomiting,” Currie said. So when Currie, founder of the PuckerButt Pepper Company in Fort Mill, South Carolina, hybridized plants using nine chili peppers from Asia and one from the Caribbean, he also created something spicier than anything he’d ever tasted: the now world-famous “Carolina Reaper.” The most common capsaicinoid is capsaicin, which gives the pepper its fiery edge. “I wanted more of that good stuff," Currie told BuzzFeed News. In fact, he was trying to raise the levels of capsaicinoids, compounds found in peppers, because he believes they have medicinal properties and can help protect against heart disease and cancer. Ed Currie wasn't looking to make the world's hottest pepper when he began crossbreeding chilies from around the globe in 2003.
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