#Carolina reapers series

He knew the record would be challenged quickly and has sent off what he thinks are even hotter batches to the students at Winthrop University to test. This is safer than jumping out of an airplane,' he said.īarrus said Currie's news has other growers sending him peppers that seem hotter than the Carolina Reaper on his tongue, although they will await scientific testing. Barrus talks lovingly about trying the Carolina Reaper, even though the peppers usually send him into spasms of hiccups and vomiting. The reason people love super-hot peppers isn't much different than any other thrill seekers. 'That's the biggest bragging rights there are.

#Carolina reapers series

Barrus said Currie's world record is just the latest event in a series of pepper growers to top one another with hotter and hotter peppers. Department of Agriculture statistics.Ĭurrie's world record has created quite a stir in the world of chiliheads, said Ted Barrus, a blogger from Astoria, Ore., who has developed a following among hot pepper fans by videotaping himself eating the hottest peppers in the world and posting the videos on YouTube under the name Ted The Fire Breathing Idiot.

In less than five years, the amount of hot peppers eaten by Americans has increased 8 percent, according to U.S. He makes sauces and mustards with names like 'Voodoo Prince Death Mamba,' ''Edible Lava' and 'I Dare You Stupit' with a goal to enhance the flavor of food.Īnd the hot pepper market is expanding. He said the attention has helped him move closer to the goal of making PuckerButt self-sustaining.Ĭurrie's peppers aren't just about heat. Even with the publicity of the world record, he still gets nervous about making payroll. She released him from that vow in February.Ĭurrie has about a dozen employees. As his business grew, Currie kept his job at a bank because he promised his wife, whom he wooed a decade ago by making her a fresh batch of salsa, he wouldn't leave the lucrative position until they were out of debt. The business now spreads across a number of backyards and a couple dozen acres in Chester County. The peppers started as a hobby, grown in his Rock Hill backyard. He is also determined to build his company, PuckerButt Pepper Company, into something that will let the 50-year-old entrepreneur retire before his young kids grow up. Ever since he got the taste of a sweet hot pepper from the Caribbean a decade ago, he has been determined to breed the hottest pepper he can. He's been interested in peppers all his life, the hotter the better. The world record is nice, but it's just part of Currie's grand plan. A formula then converts the readings into Scoville's old scale. 'I bite into a jalapeno - that's too hot for me.' Now, scientists separate the capsaicinoids from the rest of the peppers and use liquid chromatography to detect the exact amount of the compounds. So the rating depended on a scientist's tongue, a technique that Calloway is glad is no longer necessary. A scientist would then taste the solution and dilute it again and against until the heat was no longer detected. Pharmacist Wilbur Scoville devised the scale 100 years ago, taking a solution of sugar and water to dilute an extract made from the pepper. Pepper spray weighs in at about 2 million Scoville Units.

Currie's world record batch of Carolina Reapers comes in at 1,569,300 Scoville Heat Units, with an individual pepper measured at 2.2 million. Zero is bland, and a regular jalapeno pepper registers around 5,000 on the Scoville scale. The heat of a pepper is measured in Scoville Heat Units.