The Carolina Reaper held the Guinness title for the world's hottest chilli from 2013 until Pepper X was recognised in 2023. How these records are measured matters as much as the figures.
The current record¶
The Guinness World Records title for the world's hottest chilli pepper has belonged since 2023 to Pepper X, bred by Ed Currie of the PuckerButt Pepper Company in South Carolina. As reported at the time, its tested heat averaged about 2.69 million Scoville heat units (SHU). Currie had also bred the previous holder, the carolina-reaper, which was recognised by Guinness in 2013 with a reported average of around 1.6 million SHU, and some individual peppers testing well above 2 million.
To put those numbers in context, a jalapeno typically measures 2,500 to 8,000 SHU and a habanero roughly 100,000 to 350,000. Pure capsaicin is about 16 million SHU. A superhot at 2 million SHU is therefore several hundred times hotter than a jalapeño, though the experience does not scale in a straight line: past a certain point, everything is simply agony for longer.
A short history of the title¶
Record claims before the 1990s are patchy. The sequence below covers the chillies most widely reported as holding the Guinness title, with figures given as reported; different tests of the same variety often disagree.
| Chilli | Species | Around | Reported heat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red Savina (a habanero cultivar) | C. chinense | 1990s to 2006 | Roughly 500,000–580,000 SHU |
| Bhut jolokia (ghost-pepper) | C. chinense hybrid | 2007 | About 1 million SHU |
| Infinity, Naga Viper, Trinidad Scorpion Butch T | C. chinense | 2011, each briefly | Roughly 1.1–1.5 million SHU |
| carolina-reaper | C. chinense | 2013 to 2023 | About 1.6 million SHU average |
| Pepper X | C. chinense | 2023 onwards | About 2.69 million SHU average |
The early 2010s were a busy time. Several British and American growers produced superhots in quick succession, and the title changed hands more than once within a year or so. The Trinidad Moruga Scorpion, tested by New Mexico State University's Chile Pepper Institute in 2012, was also reported at around 2 million SHU for its hottest samples, though it was not the Guinness holder. Other varieties, such as the Welsh-grown Dragon's Breath, have been reported in the press as hotter than the Reaper without Guinness recognition.
📌 Record versus reputation
A Guinness record requires testing and documentation submitted to Guinness. Many claims circulate without that, and a chilli can be famous as "the hottest in the world" without ever having held the title.
How heat is measured¶
The Scoville scale was devised by the American pharmacist Wilbur Scoville in 1912. His method diluted a chilli extract in sugar water until a panel of tasters could no longer detect heat; the dilution factor became the score. It relied on human palates and was imprecise.
Modern measurements use high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), which measures the concentration of capsaicinoids, mainly capsaicin and dihydrocapsaicin. The results, in parts per million, are converted to Scoville units by a standard factor. This is more objective, but it is still measuring a particular sample from a particular plant. See the-scoville-scale for the details.
Why the numbers need care¶
- Chilli heat varies. Peppers from the same plant can differ, and heat depends on growing conditions, stress, water, temperature and ripeness. Hot, dry summers and stressed plants tend to produce hotter fruit.
- Averages and peaks are different. Some headlines quote the hottest single pepper tested; record submissions usually quote an average of a batch. Comparing one with the other exaggerates differences.
- Most tests are few and not independent. A record may rest on a limited number of samples tested by one laboratory, often on fruit supplied by the breeder. Independent replication is rare.
- Varieties are not always stable. New superhots are often still settling as varieties, and seed sold under the same name can produce plants that vary considerably.
- Conversion factors differ. Laboratories do not all convert capsaicinoid concentrations to SHU in exactly the same way.
None of this means the records are wrong, only that a figure such as "2.69 million SHU" is a reported average from specific tests rather than a fixed property of every pepper sold under that name.
Beyond chillies¶
Pure capsaicin and some related compounds sit far above any chilli. Resiniferatoxin, from a Moroccan euphorbia, is reported to be around a thousand times more pungent than capsaicin on the Scoville scale and is not a food. Commercial "extract" sauces made from concentrated capsaicin can exceed any natural chilli and should be handled with great care; see extreme-chilli-risks.
Growing a superhot¶
Superhots are varieties of Capsicum chinense and need a long, warm season. In Britain they are best grown in a greenhouse or on a sunny windowsill, sown early, from January to March. See growing-chillies and overwintering-chillies. Wear gloves when handling the fruit (handling-chillies-safely).
See also chilli-eating-contests, capsaicin, ghost-pepper, how-chillies-spread-around-the-world and chilli-pepper.