I'm guessing you're submitting this because it was recently certified as the hottest pepper by Guinness. This article from the Wikipedia page has a small write up but also a video from Hot Ones[1] that has some guests trying it out.
The ending of that video is hilarious, with Ed Currie (who created the pepper) just casually savoring the taste while everyone else is literally dying on set.
> 'Pepper X' is now officially the world's hottest chilli pepper, rating at an average of 2,693,000 Scoville Heat Units (SHU).
I learned a lot from the Dirty Jobs episode, where again Ed Currie is just fine, but one of the crew ends up lying flat on the floor after trying a chip dosed with Pepper X.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TZtQAYOtnA
In the beginning of the episode Ed had a scoop of Carolina Reaper seeds, about 25k of them, and says he gets $7 for every 10, I wonder how Pepper X will end up working out.
I think he didn't patent the Reaper. He charges $7 for 10 seeds, but you can get the seeds and Reaper products from other places. Pepper X is going to be exclusive to his company and he's not selling seed.
Ordering from other places is really hit or miss though. I’m reminded of my previous “Carolina Reaper” order from China, from Etsy of all places, and it turned out to be some kind of green Serrano…
A whole year down the drain to save a few bucks taught me a lesson about buying quality seeds really quick.
I mean, I wouldn't trust any seeds being bought from a non-brand in China. I thought they are supposed to irradiate biological shipments from other countries? You can get reputable reaper seeds from other sources in the US. I would still recommend buying directly from puckerbutt since they did the work to develop it.
I doubt sketchy seed or plant orders on Amazon follow any sort of proper protocols.
Amazon should not allow these, but are shamelessly callous towards any external risk. A pest coming in on seeds or plant matter can easy become a multi billion dollar agricultural problem.
There is no way anyone should be able to order bootleg plant material with a clean conscience. You save a couple bucks yourself but in the process buy a mega-billions anti-lottery ticket for everyone else.
We should be able to reassemble the DNA straight out of the product and then Crispr-Cas9 the changes into an existing pepper plant (assuming money and time are no object).
I think they did care about flavor, as was mentioned in a news article interview about Pepper X. I don’t remember the full quote, but something like “you can’t just make it hot, it has to taste good”. But maybe it’s hard indeed to detect any flavor once you’re dealing with 2.6M Scoville units.
A dumb one. The word "literally" is already used to specify that the phrase following it is not a figure of speech. There are plenty of ambiguities in natural languages, and layering them will only make things unnecessarily complicated.
> dull your senses by either getting old or getting covid.
I suspect neither would work to dull sensitivity to capsaicin since it works by binding directly to a specific receptor on the afferent sensory nerve cell. Repeated exposure to capsaicin probably helps as substance P is depleted.
From a purely anecdotal perspective, my experience was that COVID eliminated my sense of taste, and left my sense of very hot food unchanged as far as could be noticed. The result was a very unpleasant meal.
nope. i had covid and lost my sense of smell/taste.
i had a bottle of last dab and tried to see if the "heat" feeling also went away -- i can 100% tell you that not only it did not, but it actually felt worse because i could not taste the sauce, only the heat.
To add to the sibling comments. My first hint at getting COVID was that my local takeaway curry didn't taste of anything, but the usual fiery heat was still there. I almost phoned up the shop to have a moan about them sending out this tasteless dish but realised that I might have gotten the plague. I took a rapid test and lo and behold I was positive for COVID. It took me weeks to get my sense of taste back again.
One thing I've done with habanero peppers is blend them up with some oil, and then mix a very small amount with mayo to make a spread for sandwiches.
The oils help carry the flavors and the mayo helps dull the spiciness. It's actually quite delightful and gives you a way to control how spicy you want it to be while still getting to experience the other flavors of the pepper.
My dentist damaged my lingual nerve during a filling and half of my tongue (left side) has very little sensation (including taste). It does make eating the habaneros I grow from my garden a little odd. I have to keep them on the right side of my mouth to really enjoy them!
One time I processed a lot of hot peppers and was foolish enough to do it bare handed. I can't taste things with my hand but it was burning and hurting to the point where I couldn't sleep that night from the pain. I don't think a mouth with duller senses and a lot of taste from covid would increase the enjoyment of a pepper.
Mr Currie is one of only five people who has eaten an entire Pepper X. "I was feeling the heat for three and a half hours. Then the cramps came," Mr Currie told the Associated Press. "Those cramps are horrible. I was laid out flat on a marble wall for approximately an hour in the rain, groaning in pain."
Haha, what's next, peppers exuding pure capsaicin crystals?
Apparently the Carolina Reaper, which is significantly weaker than Pepper X, has a capsaicin content of around 100mg/g [1] -- and each one weighs around 5 grams.
10% of the Carolina Reaper, by weight, is capsaicin. I think that this is why all high-capsaicin peppers look so shriveled and stunted -- the capsaicin itself interferes with normal structural development.
To put it into perspective: Your regular jalapeno pepper has a capsaicin content of 0.22mg/g.
Most of the capsaicin is in the pith. On some peppers the pith is not really differentiated from the flesh other than the ribs that jut out and where the seeds hang. On the reaper and some of these other hot peppers, the pith is a very noticeable membrane covering the entire inside surface of the pepper. The flesh of the pepper is actually very thin, so you end up with with a lot of pith and not that much more flesh. That's how the percentage can get so high.
Superhots also produce capsaicin in the fruit, unique from non-superhots. Removing the pith from a ghost, reaper, etc., will significantly reduce the heat but still contain a lot of capsaicin from vesicles present in the fruit itself.
The extensive curves and ridges of a Pepper X chili create more surface area for the plant placenta and locules to grow and retain capsaicin, adding to the intensity of heat experienced when a Pepper X is eaten.[2].
I find it extremely appropriate that high concentrations of capsaicin in a chili manifest as little pointy spikes, which is why anything from a ghost pepper and up looks extremely mean.
I will never understand why people eat these peppers. I can't imagine any food being so good you'd overlook three and half hours of extreme discomfort followed by an hour of agony to eat it.
IIRC the Scoville Heat Unit is “equivalent parts per million capsaicin” - so it’s already considerably hotter than pure capsaicin is (there are spicier molecules available).
"Resiniferatoxin has a score of 16 billion Scoville heat units, making pure resiniferatoxin about 500 to 1000 times hotter than pure capsaicin.[...] This stimulation is followed by desensitization and analgesia, in part because the nerve endings die from calcium overload"
"At 16 billion Scoville units, resiniferatoxin is rather toxic and can inflict chemical burns in minute quantities. [...] For rats, LD50 through oral ingestion is 148.1 mg/kg.[13] It causes severe burning pain in sub-microgram (less than 1/1,000,000th of a gram) quantities when ingested orally. "
Someone actually concentrated and taste tested some of this in a fairly scientific process, and it actually didn't end up being as hot as expected. iirc the molecule is too big to properly bind to receptors the way capsaicin can.
Pure capsaicin is 16m Scoville. Not aware of any peppers using chemicals other than capsaicin, though you are correct that other chemicals supersede capsaicin on the Scoville scale.
In the hot ones video the breeder said that there are indeed other capsinoids present and that it is key to the experience.
Obviously he does have an incentive to say that! But when someone says "no, plant chemistry is more complicated than that" I'm normally inclined to believe them!
You’re mistaken. Pure capsaicin is 16 million SHU. I can’t remember the exact details of how the SHU is defined, but IIRC it’s related to the number of times a substance (having been dissolved in alcohol) would have to be diluted in a solution of sugar water before the pungency is undetectable.
As Ed explains at 5:40 in the video [1] above, they use a high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) test [2] rather than a subjective taste panel now.
I admire that he defended against incremental competitors by having quantum improvements in his library. Looks like he had no challengers so he elected to release at least one big improvement in heat.
Nile Red shows how to use the underknown Soxhlet extractor to make nearly pure capsaicin oil at home. Assuming of course that home has a fume hood, safety equipment, a rotary evaporator, and a Soxhlet extractor.
On the other hand, the quantization of energy states into discrete levels as opposed to a continuum is exactly why the phrase "quantum leap" implies a sudden, very noticeable, step-change jump in some quantity.
AFAIK that usage traces back to the 1990s TV show "Quantum Leap", in which the protagonist would travel in space & time to a new place each episode.
The phrase 'Quantum Leap', then, was popularly taken to mean a large change.
The damage done to the vernacular by that show's title is only exceeded by the damage done to the vernacular by another piece of 1990s popular culture, Alanis Morissette's song 'Ironic'.
The common expression would be "a quantum leap". Which has nothing to do with the "size" of a quantum, but suggests a massive (technological) improvement and increase in capabilities - like going from a normal binary computer to a quantum computer.
OK, wow! A few years ago I became obsessed with anything spicy. And as such, I went all the way and tried anything I could get my hands on, going all the way to the Carolina reaper. I even bought two plants and managed to grow two peppers myself, which was insanely difficult: they couldn't be more finicky if they tried. I tried them raw and that was borderline suicide. Eventually I turned them into 6 large jars of hot sauce with a ton of bell peppers, carrots, tomatoes and a whole bunch of spices. The sauce was a solid 10/10 but even though I gave it around my family and a dozen friends, our combined efforts managed to get us through it in about 8 months. That's how hot it was. My point is, it seems I have a new mountain to climb. Soooo where do I get one?
Wow, I bought a carolina reaper plant and it grew like insanity in a hot KY summer. I didn't do anything other than put it in a raised bed with potting soil and it produced like 2 lbs of peppers. It outcompeted my habanero and jalapeno plants for space, like some angry alien species hell-bent on garden domination.
I still don't know what to do with all the frozen peppers I have.
Idk to be honest. In my case they were being attacked by every pest known to man. Well insects at the very least. Out of 4 plants, only one made it out alive with the help of a dozen types of soil and chemicals to deal with the insects. And I have the perfect conditions: warm, sunny automated watering system, moisture sensors and all that. Air quality is kinda ass cause I am in a big city but last floor of a tall building so finding insects was a real shock to me.
As for what to do with them: 12 large bell peppers, chop them up, remove the seeds, some baby carrots(~100-150 grams), 200 grams of tomato sauce, whatever spices your heart desires(just add some oregano), add 200 ml of water, sauce it all in a blender with two Carolinas for a minute, add another 200 ml of water and shove all that in a pot, leave it on the stove for 40-50 minutes at medium heat and that's it really. You could toss some other peppers to the mix(also pickles work well), you really can't go wrong here. You'll have hot sauce for a very long time. And that coming from me is saying a lot, considering this is my fridge at any given time: https://i.imgur.com/C6UERig.jpg
Yeah I did that with an entire pot of chili - a single reaper with a smattering of much milder smoked pepper powders and a little chipolte in adobo sauce. It was nice!
If you are asking about the whole pepper, at this point it’s not possible. Ed Curry keeps this under lock and key (and constant security at the farm). Chili Klaus is the only person outside the company to even touch a whole pepper and that was on the hot wings set after signing NDAs. So no whole pepper yet, but the sauces they’ve made with it so far are great!
When you take it step by step, slowly increasing to the next pepper, there's not much pain involved. To my mouth, a California Reaper is just a flavorful hot pepper in the same way that for most people a Jalapeño will be but with even more subtility to its flavor profile.
"Carolina Reaper chile peppers have a sweet, fruity taste with hints of cinnamon and chocolate, followed by a very intense heat that continues to build and lingers in the throat."
What I personally don't understand is the people who eat peppers that are way past their level. One chip challenge and such. That's just a recipe for a long lasting discomfort, but then again I can empathize with the whole "mind over matter" thing.
Legit. I don't understand why people eat things they know are going to give them immediate and horrible diarrhea (read: stomach cramps is the polite way of saying that).
I love spicy food. I've been to Korea, Thailand, and India and have had my face melted by their foods.
These peppers though, after a point they're just comically hot for the sake of itself. I don't get it.
What most people do is use one of these hot peppers in a batch of milder sauce. Maybe you like the flavor of jalapeños when making a sauce for eggs, but it's not that spicy - just add 1 or 2 reapers to it.
I happened to grow reapers this year since some of my seeds were too old to germinate for my Tabasco peppers. I made some reaper sauce with just a little vinegar and salt. It's really not that bad if you dilute it. Even if you put 3-5 drops in a bowl of soup you still get some reaper flavor with the heat. I probably won't grow them again as my preference is for a stronger flavor to burn ratio. But I can see how people with a higher tolerance love them.
You don't (usually) feel physical pain with those activities. Fear first and then a rush of adrenaline, sure.
But if each time you do bungee-jumping you get so dizzy that you throw up and feel sick for 2 hours, then yeah, I would not understand either why one would keep doing that.
Edit: and even in that case, at least the bungee-jumping gives you an adrenaline rush. Does eating PepperX give you the same?
Sometimes its about getting out of your comfort zone. Comfort breeds complacency, and just the right amount of pain can be part of growth.
Too many people seek only comfort and that makes them numb, fat, stupid and weak.
Every day or two I take a cold shower, so cold its painful. I dont slowly ease into it, I step directly into the ice cold water, and often let out an involentary scream.
Why? Because it stops me getting too comfortable. It toughens me up. It also has a list of other health benefits, but the biggest benefit of all is the mental toughness and endurance it creates in me.
I like the taste of pain, although it is an acquired taste, all of the greatest tastes are. The process is wholistic, it's not just about the taste/distaste of the immediate but who it ultimately makes me become.
We become immune to diseases by deliberate and measured exposure (thats literally what a vaccine is) and it's the same with pain, and actually life, you conquer all of your dragons by deliberate and measured exposure.
And to answer your question (which took one quick google search)
> Capsaicin, the compound that gives chili peppers their heat, can trigger the release of adrenaline
Better logistics? This stuff is like fentanyl of spices, isn't it? Turn it into liquid or powder, and a kitchen can use minuscule amounts of it to spice a hot meal up to the required levels. Easy to transport in bulk and then divide into arbitrarily small portion - reducing costs of shipping and storage all across the supply chain!
But requiring much more accurate equipment to measure out. I have some tiny measuring spoons, down to tenths of a millilitre, but i think you'd need a micropipette to dose this stuff.
The capsaicin is addictive. It causes the sensation of extreme damage without the actual damage (or just effects on nerves). The body responds with euphoria inducing hormones commensurate with an actual burn. On balance you get high.
>It causes the sensation of extreme damage without the actual damage
This is almost precisely how the "nerve induction box" in Dune is described. The one that is used to test Paul with the gom jabbar. Imagine if Gaius Helen Mohiam instead of saying "Stick your hand in the box" said, "Stick this pepper in your mouth, chew and swallow." In the book scenario Paul had to trust Mohiam that his hand was not actually being burned away, and also once the test ended she could end the pain at once. With the pepper he'd not have to trust her because he'd know about capsaicin, and she could not end the pain (unless we posit a capsaicin antidote).
I've only had Ghost Pepper (once, not keen on repeating) but the pain wasn't really so bad because it was a complete endorphin (or adrenaline?) rush with just sitting there for a bit (and crying). Interesting experience.
So, if you repeatedly subject your pain receptors to capsaicin, they become desensitized to it over time. You have to keep upping your dosage to get the same response.
That's actually why it's not a "Chest hair thickening macho demonstration", because Ed Currie is not some amazing monk, suppressing immense pain by sheer force of will, but rather a trained athlete who is simply in less physical pain. Through the same vein, the entire country of India or Thailand is not magically more pain tolerant than the parts of the world with less hot peppers in their food. Their nerves have just adjusted their thresholds.
Several hottest chilli world records ago, a trend became pretty clear: the hotter they get, the more f-messed up they will look. The Pepper X does not disappoint.
The 'Hottest chili pepper' page[0] on Wikipedia has a table with photos, if you're interested.
One guess of mine (totally uncorroborated) is that the capsinoids are distributed differently as a result of being extracted (I guess with solvents?). I.e. maybe in other sauces it's in globules or crystals while in DB it's evenly spread.
For anyone who hasn't experienced it I can confirm Da Bomb is _dramatically_ more painful to eat than other sauces that have significantly higher measurer capsaicin content. And yeah it tastes like shit.
Capsaicin is a terrible time for mammals in general, but its not the only thing in the sauces. I don't know the exact mechanism Da Bomb uses, but you can easily imagine it having for example lemon juice or another irritant, that would contribute to fucking you up by enabling the capsaicin access to newer cells that would otherwise be protected from contact.
Extract-based sauces are essentially cheating in the hot sauce world. The capsaicin is chemically extracted from peppers and made into sauce, hence its tasteless and chemical-ish flavor. All of Ed Currie's sauces are made from pure pepper mash and vinegar, etc.
in the hot ones reveal for this he mentioned using pepper x distillate in the sauce. isn't that just another word for extract or am I misunderstanding?
A distillate is using condensed vapor from the distillation process, while extract is using a chemical solvent (such as alcohol) to pull a material out of a mixture. Hence with the chemical solvent, you get a less complete end product and extra (unwanted) flavors introduced into the final product.
i tried da bomb and last dab. it's amazing how da bomb tastes weirdly chemical while the last dab was quite tasteful (until the heat hit, then it was pain).
Most sauces have high scoville chilli in them but they're watered down by the sauce itself. I'd guess that da bomb has a higher overall scoville than the rest.
A lot of sauces talk about the scoville of the chilli itself rather than the scoville of the sauce.
I've also noticed that different chillis hit you in different ways. Scotch bonnet is fiery, but lasts about 10 minutes, whereas some others can last an hour and be perceived as less heat.
Orange Buffalo Viper sauce is by far the most lethal I have consumed, where this probably sits in the same league as consuming a Pepper X raw.
My wife would. She's extremely sensitive to spice, partially because she's never had any exposure to it. She touched something after I washed everything and still had burning and swelling on her finger and face.
Last month a 14-yo died, allegedly from the one-chip challenge. That said, the news was reported long before the autopsy was finished (and it's still ongoing?) so there might be other factors.
The chip in question is apparently somewhere in the range of 1.6 - 2.2 million SHU whereas pepper X is ~2.7 million SHU.
Well it is the fictional pepper from The Simpsons, however two people on the internet have estimated it's heat, a blog post from Postdoc Street in 2013 speculates 3.0 million, and there is a youtube channel created two years ago, named "Guatemalan Insanity Pepper 13m Scoville". So it's either 90% as hot, or 20% as hot.
The ending of that video is hilarious, with Ed Currie (who created the pepper) just casually savoring the taste while everyone else is literally dying on set.
> 'Pepper X' is now officially the world's hottest chilli pepper, rating at an average of 2,693,000 Scoville Heat Units (SHU).
[0]: https://guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2023/10/pepper-x-dethr...
[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUYtDA7j19c