Pepper X – it even looks evil! (Instagram: Ed Currie (@smokined))
Move over, Carolina Reaper. There’s a new king of spice in town, and his name is Pepper X. Yes, you heard that right. Pepper X. Not to be confused with Professor X, the leader of the X-Men, who can read minds and control objects with his telepathy. No, Pepper X can’t do any of that. But it can make you feel like your mouth is on fire and your stomach is about to explode.
Pepper X is the brainchild of Ed Currie, a mad scientist of the pepper world, who has been working on this monstrosity for 10 years. He claims that Pepper X has an average heat of 2,693,000 Scoville Heat Units, which is almost twice as hot as the Carolina Reaper, the previous record holder. To put that in perspective, a jalapeño pepper has about 5,000 Scoville Heat Units. So Pepper X is about 538 times hotter than a jalapeño. That’s like eating 538 jalapeños at once. Why would anyone do that? I don’t know. Ask Ed Currie.
Currie says he spent five years proving that Pepper X is a different plant with different fruit and documenting its heat over different plants and generations. He says he covered the genetics, the chemistry, and the botany of his creation. He also covered his mouth with a lot of milk and ice cream, I assume, because he actually tasted this thing. And he lived to tell the tale.
He told the Associated Press that he felt the heat for 3½ hours after eating Pepper X. Then he got cramps. Horrible cramps. He said he was laid out flat on a marble wall for an hour in the rain, groaning in pain. Sounds like fun, right? Sign me up.
Pepper X is not your typical red-hot chili pepper. It’s greenish-yellow and has an earthy flavor, unlike the spicy-sweet taste of the Carolina Reaper. Currie says he crossbred Pepper X with a Carolina Reaper and a pepper from Michigan that is “brutally hot”. He didn’t name the pepper from Michigan, but I’m guessing it’s called something like “The Wolverine” or “The Motor City Madman”.
Currie decided to unveil Pepper X on “Hot Ones”, a YouTube show where celebrities are interviewed while eating spicy chicken wings. He was joined by the host Sean Evans, a Danish chili enthusiast named Claus Pilgaard (aka Chili Klaus), and Noah Chaimberg from Heatonist, a hot sauce company that partners with Hot Ones. They all tried Pepper X and they all rapidly regretted their life decisions.
Currie said he has more peppers in the works that are even hotter than Pepper X, but he’s keeping them secret for now. He said Pepper X is not the pinnacle of his pepper quest. He said he has a mischievous smile on his face when he thinks about his future peppers. I think he’s a sadist who enjoys watching people suffer.
So there you have it, folks. The world’s hottest chili pepper is here, and it’s called Pepper X. If you’re brave enough to try it, good luck. And may God have mercy on your soul… and your ass.
