Eating the world's hottest pepper might make you 'throw up immediately,' says breeder
Ed Currie has again brought the heat with Pepper X, besting his own world record
South Carolina pepper expert Ed Currie already held the record for breeding the world's hottest pepper, the Carolina Reaper. But he apparently did not fear the reaper, and upped the ante with his new record-breaker, Pepper X.
It's three times as hot as the Reaper according to the Scoville heat scale, which scores hot peppers on a "heatmeter" based on their pungency.
For an idea of just how hot the pepper is: your run-of-the-mill jalapeno pepper tallies between 2,000 to 50,000 SHU (Scoville Heat Units). The new Pepper X comes in at 2.69 million units. That's higher on the scale than bear spray, which comes in at 2.2. million SHU, according to The Associated Press.
"I'm essentially a pepperaholic. I've been eating peppers for so many decades that even though I can feel the heat in, say, like a jalapeno, it really doesn't do anything for me," Currie, the founder of PuckerButt Pepper Company, told Day 6 host Brent Bambury.
It took Currie nearly a decade to breed the pepper in a stable manner. The process involves cross-breeding between eight and 12 generations of plants. It was certified by the Guinness Book of World Records earlier this month. Currie also recently ate a whole Pepper X on the popular YouTube series Hot Ones.
Currie admits that the heat was "brutal" when he first tried the pepper, lingering for about three hours. But he says he had it under control after about 20 minutes.
"It's a full-body experience when you eat that much capsaicin at one time," referring to the component in peppers that causes the irritation when coming in contact with human tissue.
Currie spoke to Bambury about what would happen if a hot pepper newbie tried Pepper X and why he keeps pushing up the heat scale. Here's part of their conversation.
It seems like you must have to have some sort of special qualification to be able to [eat hot peppers like that]. What's the difference between me and you when it comes to eating one of those?
Well, all of us have a different tolerance towards heat. You know, it's kind of like drinking beer. When you're young and you have a beer, one or two beers really set you off. If you turn into an alcoholic, a case of beer might do the same thing.
But you suffered when you ate the Pepper X, so...
Oh yeah, the heat was brutal immediately.
But, what would happen if I did it?
You would just throw up immediately ... Chili Klaus, who also ate one with me on [Hot Ones], he is like the king of peppers in the EU. And within, you know, five minutes of that show being off, he was throwing up in a trash can. And he told me that was the worst 24 hours of his life. Every time he tried to eat or drink something, he was getting sick again.
I like to do things that other people just think are stupid.- Ed Currie, pepper expert
Ed, we're talking about food. We're talking about peppers. What's the point of creating a piece of food that is so vile, to some people, that they can't keep it in their gut?
Well, when you make it into a hot sauce or a salsa and you don't use that much of it, it's actually a really tasty pepper.… You use small quantities and it goes a very long way.
And you also bred the previous world record as well. That was your creation?
Yes, I have. And there's many peppers that are in between them and more yet to come.
What is it about you that wants to unleash these things on the world as well as taste them yourself? What is it about Ed Currie?
It wasn't about getting the hottest pepper in the world. What I'm looking to do is raise certain capsinoid levels ... and science is proving they actually have the potential to help like cure cancer, help with heart disease, help with ALS, obesity, addiction, all sorts of things.
So what we're doing is raising those levels in peppers to see if scientists can do anything with them. But then, you know, the pepper sauce industry has just taken off so much that we're taking all the leftovers and turning them into hot sauce.
Those are some laudable goals, Ed, but it seems to me that you personally must be something of a thrill seeker. Is that in your DNA?
Oh, yeah — a thrill seeker is in my DNA. You know, I like to do things that other people just think are stupid. And I'll use this for an example: my children, when they were six and four, decided that they wanted to do karate. So at the ripe age of 55, I started doing karate. And I did tournaments where I sparred with people who were three decades younger than me, you know, getting beat up by young kids.
But, you know, I kept on doing it all the time because I wanted to win one of those times.
Well, maybe also your pain sensitivity has been dulled by all the peppers you've eaten.
No, no. See, I still feel the same thing everybody else does. Maybe not to the extent that they might do, but I got a really good poker face, and I've got decades' worth of training, so I know what to expect. So my body goes straight to the fight response instead of going to a flight response.
Those people you see on all those stupid videos where they're running around like chickens with their heads cut off — when we perceive pain, we do one of two things: fight or flight. And I've always been one that's gone to the fight response.
So it's harvest season now. When people pick these peppers and touch their eyes, do they have to go to the hospital?
No, there's nothing really that can happen to you medically from a pepper other than the perception of pain and those cramps that you get. It's really just a reaction with the nerve receptor that sends a signal to our brain that we perceive as heat. There's no actual heat.
And, you know, if you touch your eye, you can wash it out with water. You can do a lot of different things, but it's really a time thing when the capsaicin is used up and that chemical reaction stops, then you'll be all better.
Radio segment produced by Annie Bender. Q&A edited for length and clarity
