From 2013 to 2023 the Carolina Reaper was the world’s hottest chilli pepper according to Guinness World Records. It is named after the sickle-like tail at the end of the pod.
| Species | Capsicum chinense |
|---|---|
| Heat | average 1,569,300 SHU (Guinness record 2013), over 1.6 million SHU confirmed in 2017 |
| Breeder | Ed Currie, PuckerButt Pepper Company, South Carolina (USA) |
| Parentage | according to the breeder, a naga pepper from Pakistan × a very hot pepper from St. Vincent (sources differ, see below) |
| Fruit | fire-engine red, golf-ball sized, bumpy, with a pointed tail |
| Flavour | sweet at first, then very intense heat |
Origin
The Carolina Reaper was bred by Ed Currie, founder of PuckerButt Pepper Company in South Carolina. Sources differ on its parents. Speaking to the Los Angeles Times (2014), Currie described crossing a “really nastily hot” La Soufrière pepper from St. Vincent with a naga pepper from Pakistan. Science Friday calls the Caribbean parent a habanero, while Guinness in 2013 described a cross of Sweet Habanero and Naga Viper. There is no genetic study of the cross; these are the breeder’s accounts.
The record and how it was measured
Heat was measured at Winthrop University by Professor Cliff Calloway using HPLC. On 19 November 2013 Guinness recognised an average of 1,569,300 SHU, beating the previous holder, the Trinidad Scorpion “Butch T” (1,463,700 SHU). Calloway said individual pods could reach 2.2 million SHU, but Guinness never confirmed that figure. In 2017 the record value was updated to over 1.6 million SHU (Guinness cited 1.64 million in 2023).
It lost the title in October 2023 to Pepper X, bred by the same grower from the Carolina Reaper itself.
Flavour and uses
Currie describes the taste as sweet at first, then “kind of like eating molten lava”. It is mainly used in hot sauces, in small amounts. Besides PuckerButt’s own sauces it featured, together with Naga Viper, in the Paqui “One Chip Challenge” chip.
Health risks
Extremely hot peppers are not just a joke. In 2018 BMJ Case Reports described a man who developed sudden “thunderclap” headaches after eating a Carolina Reaper at a pepper-eating contest; doctors found reversible narrowing of the brain arteries (RCVS), which resolved within five weeks. In 2023 a 14-year-old boy in Massachusetts died after the One Chip Challenge; the medical examiner cited cardiac arrest after eating food with a high capsaicin concentration, and the boy also had a congenital heart defect. The product was withdrawn from sale.
Related
Pepper X · Trinidad Moruga Scorpion · Habanero · Scoville scale
Sources
- Guinness World Records: Confirmed: Smokin Ed’s Carolina Reaper sets new record for hottest chilli (2013)
- Los Angeles Times: Carolina Reaper (2014)
- Science Friday: The Hottest Pepper in the World
- Guinness World Records: Pepper X dethrones Carolina Reaper (2023)
- Live Science: Hot pepper thunderclap headaches (2018, on the BMJ Case Reports case)
- CBS News: One Chip Challenge autopsy (2024)