You’re looking at what might be the world’s hottest pepper
It was grown in North Carolina by Ed Currie, a man on a mission to breed the world’s hottest pepper. He tinkers with the plant’s growing conditions in order to maximize the spicy. This particular specimen, which is known as HP22B, caused four of six people that tried it to vomit. Ed is hoping to unseat the current record holder, called Trinidad Scorpion “Butch T”, which clocks in at 1.4 million Scoville.
For those of you who aren’t in the know, a pepper’s heat is measured in units called Scovilles. It’s a rather subjective unit, which is derived by diluting the pepper and seeing at what concentration you can still barely detect the heat. The average jalepeño weighs in at around 3500-8000 Scoville. Ed claims that HP22B is an average of 1.5 million Scoville.
