FORT MILL, S.C. — Ed Currie holds one of his world-record Carolina Reaper peppers by the stem, which looks like the tail of a scorpion.
On the other end is the bumpy, oily, fire-engine red fruit with a punch of heat nearly as potent as most pepper sprays used by police. It’s hot enough to leave even the most seasoned spicy food aficionado crimson-faced, flushed with sweat, trying not to lose his lunch.
Last month, Guinness World Records decided Currie’s peppers were the hottest on Earth, ending a more-than-four-year drive to prove no one grows a more scorching chili. The heat of Currie’s peppers was certified by students at Winthrop University who test food as part of their undergraduate classes.
But whether Currie’s peppers are truly the world’s hottest is a question that one scientist said can never be known. The heat of a pepper depends not just on the plant’s genetics, but also where it is grown, said Paul Bosland, director of the Chile Pepper Institute at New Mexico State University. And the heat of a pepper is more about being macho than seasoning.
“You have to think of chili heat like salt. A little bit improves the flavor, but a lot ruins it,” Bosland said.
The record is for the hottest batch of Currie’s peppers that was tested, code name HP22B for “ Higher Power, Pot No. 22, Plant B.” Currie said he has peppers from other pots and other plants that have comparable heat.
The science of hot peppers centers on chemical compounds called capsaicinoids. The higher concentration, the hotter the pepper, said Cliff Calloway, the Winthrop University professor whose students tested Currie’s peppers.
The heat of a pepper is measured in Scoville Heat Units. Zero is bland, and a regular jalapeno pepper registers around 5,000 on the Scoville scale. Currie’s world-record batch of Carolina Reapers comes in at 1,569,300 Scoville Heat Units, with an individual pepper measured at 2.2 million. Pepper spray weighs in at about 2 million Scoville units.
Ever since Currie got the taste of a sweet hot pepper from the Caribbean a decade ago, he has been determined to breed the hottest pepper he can. He is also determined to build his company, PuckerButt Pepper Co., into something that will let the 50-year-old entrepreneur retire before his young kids grow up.
The peppers started as a backyard hobby that now is a business spread across a number of backyards and a couple of dozen acres in Chester County. As his business grew, Currie kept his job at a bank because he promised his wife — whom he wooed a decade ago with a fresh batch of salsa — he wouldn’t leave the lucrative position until they were out of debt. She released him from that vow in February.
Currie has about a dozen employees. Even with the publicity of the world record, he still gets nervous about making payroll. He said the attention has helped him move closer to the goal of making PuckerButt self-sustaining.
His peppers aren’t just about heat — he aims for sweetness, too. He makes sauces and mustards with names such as “Voodoo Prince Death Mamba,” “Edible Lava” and “I Dare You Stupit” with a goal to enhance the flavor of food.
And the hot-pepper market is expanding. In less than five years, the amount of hot peppers eaten by Americans has increased 8 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.