Fort Mill’s Carolina Reaper is no longer the world’s hottest pepper. Here’s Pepper X.
The Carolina Reaper is no longer the world’s hottest pepper. But don’t cry for its creator.
Ed Currie is still king of the pepper world. He now has Pepper X.
Guinness World Records posted an online article Monday naming Pepper X the hottest on record. Pepper X tested at an average of 2.693 million Scoville Heat Units, the standard for measuring pepper heat. The prior world record holder, the Carolina Reaper, averages 1.64 million SHU.
Currie owns Puckerbutt Pepper Company in Fort Mill, S.C. The Main Street shop offers a variety of pepper products including an array of sauces. Currie put Fort Mill on the pepper map with the locally grown product and multiple appearances on Netflix and other programs. Currie even brought a pepper-eating challenge to Fort Mill that drew the world’s most daring participants.
Currie unveiled Pepper X on a Hot Ones series episode on Youtube that’s also been shared on the Guinness World Records and Puckerbutt pages. In the episode, Currie talks about the combination of heat and flavor that grows into pepper production. Pepper X, Currie said on the episode, has been a while in the making.
“We stabilized it a while ago, and it’s been in the war chest for about a decade now,” Currie said. “And we’ve just been waiting to take it out.”
The certificate from Guinness notes Pepper X was tested at Winthrop University on Aug. 23. It combined peppers harvested the past four years. Currie previously indicated Pepper X is hotter than the Carolina Reaper.
Pepper X is a cross-bred progeny of some of Currie’s hottest peppers. The Guinness article notes Currie crosses more than 100 variations each year to get one or two that might make it through a 10-year cycle.
The Carolina Reaper held the world’s hottest title for a decade before Pepper X. It’s become known and used for everything from local football and baseball team mascots to spicy versions of national food chain products like Taco Bell to numerous spicy pepper eating world record attempts.
This story was originally published October 17, 2023 at 2:06 PM with the headline "Fort Mill’s Carolina Reaper is no longer the world’s hottest pepper. Here’s Pepper X.."
