A Fort Mill store with the world’s hottest pepper is on the move. Here’s where to find it
PuckerButt Pepper Company, purveyor of the home-grown, world’s hottest peppers grown, is moving on from its Main Street store in Fort Mill. A new Kingsley location in northern Fort Mill opens Friday.
The new space is at 1376 Broadcloth St., suite 102. That’s an area of apartments over retail, with the bottom level a mix of realty, medical, personal service and other shops at Kingsley Town Center.
PuckerButt has been a Main Street staple in Fort Mill since 2013, the year owner “Smokin” Ed Currie received his first Guinness World Records title for breeding the hottest pepper on the planet, his Carolina Reaper. He’s since supplanted it with the current record holder Pepper X claiming the title in 2023.
“There was nothing bad with the move,” Currie told The Herald. “It was just an opportunity, and time for a change.”
PuckerButt sells its spiciest peppers, along with a long list of sauces from mild to extreme heat. There also are seasonings, snacks, jams and apparel donning the PuckerButt brand.
Pucker up for more PuckerButt products
Currie brought attention to Main Street in his time there, from numerous hot pepper tastings whose videos lit up social media to what Currie called the “inaugural invitational international pepper-eating championship” six years ago.
Competitive eaters from across the world came to Fort Mill to down Carolina Reapers.
The space in Kingsley is newer and larger than the one on Main Street. It’ll allow for more products on shelves and hopefully, for Currie, more customers.
“I think we’re going to wind up having more foot traffic,” he said.
PuckerButt has added about 50 new products in the past year, from pepper sauces to spices, barbecue sauce and mustard. The company has a growing number of partnerships with other area food-makers to sell anything from honey to hot sauces.
This story was originally published March 20, 2025 at 1:59 PM with the headline "A Fort Mill store with the world’s hottest pepper is on the move. Here’s where to find it."
