World's hottest chile pepper: The Trinidad Moruga Scorpion!

[n2doc]

The Trinidad Moruga Scorpion sounds like a lethal beast, and in many ways, it is.

It's just been crowned the hottest chile pepper on the planet, after testing this week by experts at New Mexico State University's Chile Pepper Institute in Albuquerque.

The pepper, which comes from the central south coast of Trinidad, is certifiably potent: Its mean score on the Scoville scale used to grade peppers topped more than 1.2 million heat units, the testing showed. By comparison, a jalapeno logs about 5,000 on the scale.

"You take a bite. It doesn't seem so bad, and then it builds and it builds and it builds. So it is quite nasty," Paul Bosland, renowned pepper expert and director of the chile institute, told the Associated Press.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2012/02/trinidad-moruga-scorpion-worlds-hottest-chili-pepper.html

[backscatter712]

1. 1.2 million Scovilles? That's like taking a bite of pepper spray!

Try one of those, and I hope you like pain...

[Initech]

23. I was gonna say isn't pepper spray like 1.4 million?

That's insane!

[Angleae]

28. 500k - 2 million per wiki

I agree, that's insane.

[Blue Owl]

2. Just looking at it will make your scalp sweat

n/t

[Loki]

3. Owwwwww

It hurts just to watch that video.

[Blue_Tires]

4. eh...when I was in college I put those on my cereal to cool down after a run...

[Warpy]

5. I'll pass, thanks

I like to taste the pepper and not just blow the top of my head off with heat. I usually use a combination of jalapenos for flavor and serranos for heat in salsas and soups, although if it's a big pot I'll use habanero.

[Icicle]

10. Agreed

I agree, the attraction isn't just "heat," it's flavor with the heat. The heat alone isn't worth so much.

[tabasco]

17. Really. I like heat but heat with flavor.

I love the hot green sauce from Mexico.

[badtoworse]

6. What happened to the Ghost Chile?

I thought that was the hottest. I guess it's been dethroned.

[Angleae]

8. 3 times

By the Infinity chilli, Naga Viper pepper, and aformentioned Trinidad Scorpion.

[Hugabear]

15. How much hotter is this than Ghost chili pepper?

I have some ghost chilli pepper sauce - just a tiny drop of that is enough to set your mouth on fire.

[Angleae]

27. By pure numbers, about double.

Ghost chili: 1,041,427 units
Trinidad Moruga Scorpion: 2,009,231 units

Edit: got the wrong chili

[niyad]

22. and I was reading about something called the 7-pot chocolate (also from trinidad)

[hifiguy]

7. That is one malevolent looking little

belly-bomb. I do lurves me hot, HOT peppers, though.

[Lawlbringer]

9. Your fingers, your mouth, even your nostrils and eyes

can all get used to the burn of spicy foods. Sadly, the other end of you never does. And this stuff is JUST as spicy coming out as going in.

[niyad]

18. I never have that problem in eating spicy (and I mean REALLY spicy) foods

[infidel dog]

11. Ye gads. Do you cook them in a pot or a crucible?

[snooper2]

12. You can buy seeds here

http://www.thehippyseedcompany.com/

[niyad]

21. thanks, I think I just found my new favourite seed site

[TheMastersNemesis]

13. Good Use

One good use would be to smear some of this on a glove and use it to exam a Republican male in you know where.

[niyad]

16. I like your thinking

[saras]

19. I used to have an 'ornamental' pepper plant that you couldn't even touch

Little peppers, about an inch long, bright red. Conspicuously labeled decorative only, poisonous, do not eat, etc. but they were just peppers. A serious touch (i.e. rub a pepper or crush a bit of leaf) got you blisters, not just the feeling of heat. Taking a bite to find out how hot they were would have been completely out of the question. Maybe inedible peppers are poisonous like other nightshades? Because these things would have made a HELL of a salsa - or a drain cleaner.

[tabasco]

20. Heat doesn't matter!

Signed,

tabasco

[MineralMan]

24. I grew up eating food with lots of peppers in it.

For some reason, my gentle soul of a mom liked peppers. Could be where she was raised, in Arizona, in a mining town that was about 60% hispanic. Anyhow, I've always loved peppers. However, the heat game has always seemed to me like some sort of pissing contest, mostly. Peppers should contribute flavor in combination with their heat, but if a pepper is so hot that the primary sensation from eating it is pain, then it ceases to be a culinary ingredient for me.

I'm not married to a midwesterner who grew up in a Norwegian/German heritage family. For Norwegians, flour is a seasoning, and the German side doesn't seem to think peppers are edible. So, introducing my wife and her family to the flavors of these ingredients has been an interesting process. Still, now, my mother-in-law (the Norwegian side) and my wife have learned to enjoy the fire in moderation. My wife will sometimes say, "Damn...that's hot!" But she keeps eating with gusto. When that happens, I know I have the heat dialed in just about right. And watching my mother-in-law's forehead start sweating as she digs in and keeps eating is always a pleasure. They like it now. Not as hot as I do, but that's OK. I can always add heat at the table...

[RandomKoolzip]

25. Hey! Who's hungry?

[Moondog]

26. You can get the plants (someone posted seed source above) from these folks -

http://www.chileplants.com/

They ship in early April. If you want plants for transplanting, as opposed to seed, these are pretty good folks to deal with.

Thought about ordering a couple of these Trinidad Scorpions a few days back when putting in an order for this year, but I wimped out, and got tamer stuff.

On edit: put the link back in.