While there are peppers that will make your curry something special, there are also peppers
that can be weaponized, taking hotness to a whole new level.
Those dangerously fiery peppers are the ones we're talking about here.
Here's the truth about the world's hottest peppers.
It starts with Scoville
You can't talk about hot peppers without talking about the Scoville scale.
The scale was created in 1912 by pharmacist Wilbur Scoville.
The original scale measured spiciness by taking pepper extract and diluting it in sugar water.
The amount of dilution needed before the pepper's heat was undetectable by trained testers was
the Scoville rating.
These days, a more scientific process known as high-performance liquid chromatography
is used to find the magic number.
A jalapeno, for example, has a Scoville rating of between 2500 and 8000, while pure capsaicin,
the molecule that makes spicy things spicy, essentially, is at the very high end of the
scale with a rating of 15 to 16 million.
Infinity war
Let's explore the Scoville scale some more: Tabasco sauce, for example, clocks in at between
2500 and 5000 Scoville units, and is generally considered pretty mild.
Compare that to the so-called "Infinity chili," which is rated between 1-point-2 and 2 million
Scoville units.
In 2013, 55-year-old Dr. Ian Rothwell managed to finish off an entire plate of chicken curry
made with a whopping 20 Infinity chilis, plus a mix of other hot peppers, a plate so hot
anyone who's cooking it needs to wear a gas mask and other protective gear.
Rothwell ate the curry at a UK-based restaurant called Bindi with only a pint of beer to help,
according to CNN, and took a walk part way through.
That's when he started hallucinating.
His wife found him wandering the streets having a conversation with his own hand.
The pep talk apparently worked, and he finished the dish, known as "The Widower", in about
an hour, and with a smile on his face, as verified by this Bindi promotional video.
Fear the Reaper
In the highly competitive world of growing and breeding hot peppers, Ed Currie ranks
high.
He's the head of the PuckerButt Pepper Company, and creator of the Carolina Reaper, which
hits about 1-point-5 million units on the scoville scale.
Currie says tasting one is like, quote, "licking the sun," and when asked if he'd recommend
trying one, like Shaq did on Inside the NBA in 2017, he told Munchies,
"I don't recommend it at all.
It is very stupid and I am an idiot for doing it."
"I won't lie to you: Eating a Carolina Reaper is like eating lava, but eventually that endorphin
rush takes over, and it just feels good."
For Currie, there's a practical reason for creating something so unbearably hot.
For companies that rely on chilis to give their product an extra kick of heat, they
can buy Carolina Reapers and use a much smaller number of peppers to spice up an industrial-sized
batch.
Currie, a cancer survivor, told the Los Angeles Times it all began when he read a scientific
paper suggesting the chemicals in peppers might help protect against the development
of heart disease and cancer.
Generation X
In October 2017, Ed Currie announced he'd created something even hotter than the Carolina
Reaper or any other recent competitors, and he called it Pepper X.
According to Currie, this new bad boy of the chili world sits at about 3.18 million Scoville
units.
You can actually try this one, if you're brave enough, because it's used in a sauce you can
order online called The Last Dab.
By all accounts it's accurately named, because the sauce alone is said to have a Scoville
rating of around 2.4 million.
"Two hours later, I found myself incapacitated in the woods with cramps I haven't experienced
since childbirth."
Danger zone
Stories of supposedly lethal peppers have gone viral, but according to Gizmodo, the
claims are simply untrue.
In order to consume a lethal dose of capsaicin, you'd need to eat half a pound of high-Scoville
peppers like the Dragon's Breath, and that's basically impossible, considering your body's
reaction.
That's not to say there aren't dangers.
In 2016, the Telegraph reported on a man who took part in a competitive chili-eating contest,
like the reaper challenge shown here, and tore a hole in his esophagus.
In 2011, the BBC said two competitors trying to take on a "killer curry" contest in Scotland
ended up in the hospital.
So if you're brave enough to take on the world's hottest peppers, it's best to do so in moderation
… if your body even gives you a choice!
"Can I have milk for baby?"