What Are The Spiciest Peppers In The World? (2024)

What Are The Spiciest Peppers In The World?

The spiciest peppers in the world. Some evolved organically, some were genetically devised somewhere in a laboratory. Either way, they will set your tongue ablaze. But what are they? And how are they measured? Keep reading to more about the world’s hottest peppers. l

Measuring the World’s Spiciest Peppers

Believe it or not, there is actually a standard unit for measuring levels of spiciness. That’s right, we’re talking about the Scoville Scale.

Named after American pharmacologist, Wilbur Scoville, who devised the test and scale in 1912 while working at theParke-Davispharmaceutical, it measures the pungency of chili peppers and other spicy foods. The standard unit of measure being the SHU.

SHU = Scoville Heat Unit(A measure of Spiciness)

SHU is a way of quantifying how spicy a pepper is by measuring the concentration of capsaicinoids. Capsaicin is the chemical responsible for the spicy sensation within a pepper.

Well, as the only internationally recognized unit of measure, SHU has become the standard and according to its formula, here are the 8 spiciest peppers in the world.

The World’s Spiciest Peppers

8.7 Pot Barrackpore ~ 1,000,000 SHU

The 7-Pot family is from Trinidad. There are a few different versions, including the Yellow 7-Pot, the 7-Pot Jonah, and the Chocolate, or 7-Pot Douglah. The name refers to the saying that it is hot enough to spice 7 pots of stew. In Trinidad, they are used in military grade tear gas and marine paint, which prevents barnacles.

Coming in at number on this list is this7 Potvariety, which comes from the region ofBarrackporeon the Caribbean Island of Trinidad. It has a nice fruity flavor along with considerable heat.

7. Ghost Pepper (Bhut Jolokia) ~ 1,041,427 SHU

The Bhut jolokia, also known as ghost pepper, ghost chili and ghost jolokia, is an interspecific hybrid chili pepper cultivated in the Northeast Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Nagaland and Manipur.

With over a million SHU, these peppers are hot. Some of the world’s spiciest peppers, in fact. Think you can handle it? Try our very own Small Axe’s Ghost Peppers sauce for yourself.

6. Naga Viper ~ 1,349,000 SHU

The Naga Viper was created inEnglandby chili farmer Gerald Fowler of The Chili Pepper Company.It is claimed to be anunstablethree-way hybrid produced from theNaga Morich, theBhut jolokiaand theTrinidad scorpion, some of the world’s hottest peppers.

5. Trinidad Scorpion “Butch T” ~ 1,463,700 SHU

The Trinidad scorpion pepper is a Capsicum chinense cultivar that is among the most piquant peppers in the world. It is indigenous to Trinidad and Tobago but was cultivated in Butch Taylor in Crosby, Mississippi . It was named by Neil Smith from The Hippy Seed Company, after he got the seeds originally from Taylor who was responsible for propagating the pepper’s seeds.

4. 7 Pot Primo ~ 1,469,000 SHU

Yep, another from the 7 pop family. And it won’t be the last. A cross between the Naga Morich and Trinidad 7 Pot, The7 Pot Primo has a fruity/floral flavor. It is very rare pepper made from true primo seeds are hard to come by. Its defining characteristic must be its long skinny “tail”, which some peppers cultivators have tried to replicate because it looks more perilous than a stingray. Sorta fitting for the 4th spiciest pepper in the world, right?

3. 7 Pot Douglah ~ 1,853,936 SHU

As we told you, more to come from the 7 Pot family. But although the7 Pot Douglah may be the last on this list, its certainly not the least. In fact, at nearly 2 million SHU its nearly twice as spicy as theBarrackpore.

The Douglah has dark brown/deep purple skin, whose defining characteristic are the many “pimples” over the surface. The pepper starts out green and matures to the dark color uniuqe to the Douglah.

When you slice a fresh one open, you will immediately see pools of liquid capsaicin oils that give this chili so much heat. That’s right, you can see the spiciness.

2. Trinidad Moruga Scorpion ~ 2,009,231 SHU

Coming in at number two is the Trinidad Moruga scorpion. This poignant pepper, like many others on this list, is native toTrinidad. On February 13, 2012,New Mexico State University’s Chile Pepper Institute(The only international, non-profit organization devoted to education and research related to Capsicum,or chile peppers) identified the Trinidad Moruga scorpion as the hottest chili in the world, with a mean heat of more than 1.2 million Scoville heat units (SHUs) and individual plants with a heat of more than 2 millionSHUs.

“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,” said Paul Bosland, a chili pepper expert and director of theChile Pepper Institute.

Aside from the heat, the Trinidad Moruga scorpion has a tender fruit-like flavor, which makes it a sweet-hot combination.

1. Carolina Reaper ~ 2,200,000 SHU

If you’re in New York, you don’t need to go too far to arrive at the home of the world’s spiciest pepper. Punching in at number one, with an astound 2.2 million SHU is none other than the Carolina Reaper.

Bred by ‘Smokin’ Ed Currie, proprietor of the PuckerButt Pepper Company inFort Mill, the Carolina Reaper was certified as the world’s hottest chili pepper by theGuinness World Recordson 11 August 2017.

The crossbreed is between a “really nastily hot” La Soufriere pepper from the Caribbean island of St. Vincent and a Naga pepper from Pakistan,and is named ‘Reaper’ due to the shape of its tail. It has been described as having a fruity taste, with the initial bite being sweet and then immediately turning to “molten lava”… Now, that’s spicy!

World’s Spiciest Peppers Honorable Mentions:

Pepper X ~ 3,18o,ooo SHU

Pepper X is a cultivar of Capsicum chili pepper bred by Ed Currie, the same guy that created the Carolina Reaper. It was spawned from several cross breedings which was developed over 10 years of cultivation.Currie himself has stated that it is “2x as hot as the Carolina Reaper”, which would make it the hottest pepper in the world with a Scoville scale of 3.18 million units, but this remains unconfirmed by Guinness World Records as of 2021, the only reason it didn’t take the number one spot on our list.

Dragon’s Breath Pepper ~ 2,480,000 SHU

The Dragon’s Breath plant was kinda a happy accident. You see, it was developed in a collaboration between chili farmer Neal Price, NPK Technology, and Nottingham Trent University during a test of a special plant food and for its essential oil having potential as a skin anesthetic. It was later cultivated by breeder Mike Smith of St. Asaph, Denbighshire, Wales, who said that he had not planned to breed the chili for record heat, but rather was trying to grow an attractive pepper plant.

Dragon’s Breath is a chili pepper cultivar officially tested at 2.48 million Scoville units, which would make it the second-hottest chili on record after Pepper X (which as we mentioned also remains unconfirmed by Guinness World Records as of 2021).

How much SHU can you handle?

That’s all folks. Are you prepared to handle 2 million SHU of heat? Well, maybe you can ease into it with the Small Axe Pepper’s Spicy Three Pack. Perhaps its a good bench mark to see if you’re up for the Carolina Reaper? Or, if you’re really daring, you can try our Ghost Pepper Sauce: