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The Hottest Chili Pepper In The World

Fluttermoth said:
I'm quite a fan of Carolina Reaper, even though I don't normally like hot food; it has a really, really nice flavour. I find a piece about the size of my thumbnail (dried, no seeds) is enough for a six person chili.

I did once get a bit in my eye when I was chopping it (dried, not fresh) and it was truly awful. Felt like being stabbed in the eye socket with a red hot poker, and the whole side of my face swelled up. I did wonder if I was going to actually go blind in that eye for a while :willy:
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I've used the Carolina Reaper in chilli and once tried eating a piece of one raw.

I was in a quite astonishing amount of discomfort for what seemed like a very long time, but the eventual endorphin exhilaration complete with the giggles and a slight OOBE was almost worth it. I even had the sensation of rushes of what I can only call 'energy' like warm water rushing up and down my body (legs in particular) as though I were swimming and yet I was the water, maaan. The same experiment with Scotch Bonnets and a Bhut jolokia yielded similar results.

I've never been tear-gassed but standing over a bubbling pot with these very hot chillies cooking in it is, I imagine, a less painful taster of the full effects of CS etc. It certainly affects the breathing.
 
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Andy X said:
I've used the Carolina Reaper in chilli and once tried eating a piece of one raw.

I was in a quite astonishing amount of discomfort for what seemed like a very long time, but the eventual endorphin exhilaration complete with the giggles and a slight OOBE was almost worth it. I even had the sensation of rushes of what I can only call 'energy' like warm water rushing up and down my body (legs in particular) as though I were swimming and yet I was the water, maaan. The same experiment with Scotch Bonnets and a Bhut jolokia yielded similar results.

I've never been tear-gassed but standing over a bubbling pot with these very hot chillies cooking in it is, I imagine, a less painful taster of the full effects of CS etc. It certainly affect the breathing.
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Oh, that's sort of interesting, I laughed quite a lot when I had it in my eye, I couldn't understand why, it really wasn't very funny!
 
There are two competing theories:

a) Sudden release of natural opiate-like chemicals into the nervous system

b) Giddy amazement at still being alive
 
I'd quite like Wales to win, but what does it taste like, I wonder? The aforementioned hyper-hot chillies are far fiercer than might conceivably be useful or necessary for culinary purposes but they tend to have wonderful flavours.

It seems there's a new challenger for the largely pointless title of 'world's hottest':

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepper_X

Haven't found any details on its ancestory, and the claimed 3.18 MegaScovilles remains unconfirmed.

I'm not sure whether to believe the following account of a hospitalisation from eating a breed of ghost pepper rated at a weedy one million and normally suited to new-born infants and invalids:

"Last year a competitive eater tried to eat a burger laced with ghost peppers--which are rated at 1 million Scoville units--and wound up with a hole in his esophagus and a collapsed lung."
​
:pop:

I read somewhere that children in central / south America are traditionally made to eat chillies as a punishment (maybe the same practice occurs in other parts of the globe?). Of course they quickly learn to enjoy them...
 
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AgProv said:
err.. looks as if wales is the world-leader in weapons-grade chili right now... Wales.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-east-wales-39946962
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I already knew about Wales and chilis as I am quite interested in chilis and veg more generally. After several years of growing disappointing chilis, I sent away for seeds of an heirloom variety with the unpreposessing name of Nigel's Outdoors although I will try some in the greenhouse as I am not sure Nigel lived on the same latitude as me.
 
Andy X said:
Of course they quickly learn to enjoy them...
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Don't people build-up a tolerance, then seek ever-more stimulating versions? This allegedly happens with curry.

(I imagine there may be a taste-bud death effect...perhaps mirroring the brain-cell depletion/tolerance phenomenon resulting over time, from the ever-more bizarre choice of reigning politicians eg from Haig through to BoJo as Foreign Secretary, or, would Trump ever really appeared to be pseudo-acceptable if Bill Clinton hadn't warmed the seat for him? In the not-too-distant future, I predict a cactus plant will become Prime Minister of the UK, and Trump will ultimately be replaced by a reclining chair)
 
A few years back, Tesco - or one of the supermarkets - took to promoting the Dorset Naga as an extreme experience. I bought a small bag of them but the examples inside were much milder than I expected. I do like the odd Scotch Bonnet and they were not so hot. More usually, I stick to finger chllies or the explosive little birdseye ones. I often leave them whole, so I can regulate how much heat I get when eating. For flavour, I am very fond of those fermented chili and garlic preserves from Szechuan. :dinner:
 
A friend shared the chilli story on Facebook, and a friend of his commented that he knows Mike Smith who grows them and he says that the story is fake.
 
JamesWhitehead said:
A few years back, Tesco - or one of the supermarkets - took to promoting the Dorset Naga as an extreme experience. I bought a small bag of them but the examples inside were much milder than I expected. I do like the odd Scotch Bonnet and they were not so hot. More usually, I stick to finger chllies or the explosive little birdseye ones. I often leave them whole, so I can regulate how much heat I get when eating. For flavour, I am very fond of those fermented chili and garlic preserves from Szechuan. :dinner:
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Yes, it was Tesco for sure (and maybe others). I didn't think they were that hot either, although Nagas and the Bhut Jolokia are more or less the same AFAIK, yet one of the latter precipitated something not unlike Homer Simpson's trippy experience at the chilli cook-off :)

In September 2015 - before they got hold of the Carolina Reapers - Tesco briefly promoted these chaps as the latest thing in masochistic insanity:

komodo0915_FTMB.jpg

These were certainly as hot as a top-end Scotch Bonnet - not a bad flavour either.

A proper Szechuan hotpot is on my bucket list; indeed if the cosmic joker wills it that roiling cauldron of chilli oil may become the 'bucket' that I kick.
 
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The Carolina Reaper is currently touted as the world's hottest chili pepper. This man just set a new Guinness record for speed-eating them.
California man eats 10 Carolina reaper chilies in 33.15 seconds

A California man ... earned his latest Guinness World Records title by eating 10 Carolina reaper chilies -- the hottest peppers in the world -- in 33.15 seconds.

Gregory Foster completed the mouth-scorching challenge in San Diego about nine months after earning another Guinness World Records title by eating three Carolina reapers in 8.72 seconds. ...

Carolina reapers, first grown by Ed Currie of the PuckerButt Pepper Company, are known as the hottest chilies in the world, registering 1,641,183 Scoville Heat Units, the method used to calculate the spiciness of food. Jalapeno peppers, by comparison, typically measure 2,000 to 8,000 Scoville Heat Units.

"The good thing about reapers is the really bad heat doesn't kick in for about 30 seconds or so," Foster told Guinness World Records. "It's when I stand up and start chugging milk and water and everything, to go through the post competition phase, that the heat really kicks in."
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SOURCE: https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2022/1...eat-10-Carolina-reaper-peppers/1101667850673/
 
I have reapers seeds to start off in January. Along with a few other hotties. Naga, orange habs and the usual scotch bonnets.

My mate across the road has just invested in a greenhouse so I’m hoping he may “adopt” a few for me.
 
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