SMOKIN' ED CURRIE: This is the life lesson
that it took me 35 years to learn,
with, it's the right thing to do-- if you know it's what
you're supposed to do, do it.
Don't worry about money.
All my needs are always provided for.
My wants are just my wants.
And I don't need them in my life.
When you're doing the thing you're supposed to do,
you'll be successful no matter what
you have because money doesn't solve the issues of life.
Most people don't learn that until they're my age.
Once you get to the Carolinas-- once you touch that red clay,
something happens to you.
I just fell in love with it from the very start.
The people here are amazing.
It's just like I envisioned America used
to back in the 1800s and 1900s.
Everybody cares about each other.
And really they-- neighbors helping neighbors.
And it's always a friendly atmosphere.
Originally when I got into peppers,
it was because I didn't want to die.
I found our a very young age I was
going to die of heart disease or cancer,
and I started doing research because I was essentially bored
in college-- how I could stop myself from dying.
Not because I wanted to cure any diseases or anything like that,
for real, it's just because I wanted to keep on partying.
I liked college.
But that led me to peppers, and on and off
through the '80s and '90s I went in and out
of doing stuff with peppers.
It all depended on how much it interfered
with my party schedule.
But I really got serious about it again in the late '90s
and through 2000.
And essentially it's because I don't want to die.
Now I have two beautiful children.
I have family who loves me.
I have a wife who loves me.
I've got friends who are my family.
And I believe peppers are one of the cures for cancer and heart
disease and we're doing the research
to try to prove that fact and see if it works.
People think that I do this because of the Guinness record.
And I am proud of my Guinness record.
Don't get me wrong.
It's an honor that god allows me to be the world record
holder for the hottest pepper in the world.
I mean, our team works really hard.
But originally, when I started really,
really building the business up and focusing on doing peppers,
it was about breeding peppers for cancer and heart disease.
And then when I figured out that I had some really, really
hot stuff, I got with Dr. Callaway
from Winthrop University and we decided that
instead of just testing stuff to see how hot it was,
let's get students involved.
And we made the PuckerButt Project.
What it is, is we have students--
actually they come out and they study the soil
that we plant in.
They do tests on a machine called an HPLC
for capsinoids and other values that we're looking at.
There's a whole range of stuff that they do.
But what we do is use undergrads and grad students
to do all this science.
And that's really what I was just trying to do.
Trying to figure out how not to die.
But it's turned into a worldwide brand.
We have quite a thriving business
going right here in Fort Mill.
The current Guinness world record holder
is the Smoking Ed's Carolina Reaper.
I'm Smoking Ed and we named it the Carolina Reapers.
It measures in at an average of 1.5693 million Scoville units,
which is-- it's stupid hot, OK.
It's idiotic to eat.
OK.
But there are some of us how are idiots.
So we do.
OK.
The average jalapeno that you get in the store,
we've been measuring is about 3,000 Scoville.
Carolina Reaper is 1.6 million on average.
So it would be like comparing a little kid's bicycle,
you know, you move with your feet to a rocket ship.
They're two totally different animals.
There is no comparison.
Jalapenos are candy.
We don't eat them because we can't tell.
I love the state I live in.
I love the community.
It's the kind of place where you can leave your door open
at night.
And the kind of place where everybody's
looking out for each other.
It's really the kind of place where
they want to see people succeed, so everybody helps one another.
I mean, we support every business
on this street, even the ones that we have no need for.
And we support all the businesses.
I buy everything locally between here and Rock Hill.
So everything that we do that we have to buy
is done within the area because that's how people are for us.
They come-- oh, I've got-- you know,
they own a mercantile down the street,
but they come up here to buy presents for their family.
It's that kind of things.
We're all a big community.
It's a real community.
It's not just a billboard on the side of the road, you know.