New World’s Hottest Chile: This Time it’s for Real!
chilA recent Study done at the University of New Mexico revealed that the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion is the hottest pepper. The Trinidad Moruga Scorpion recently tested with an average heat level of 1.2 Million Scoville Units and topping out at approximately 2 MILLION Scoville Units (SHU). So why should this make an impact on me. Just last year it seems we had a new “World’s Hottest Pepper” every month, heck we even had a fake pepper take the crown for about a day. The results of this test have changed the Scoville Scale, the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion scored highest overall, the Chocolate 7-pot came in at almost 1.17 million SHU, 7-pot placed third with more than 1.06 million SHU, Trinidad Scorpion packed almost 1.03 million SHU and Bhut Jolokia had almost 1.02 million SHU.
Since Chile Peppers of the same variety will often vary in heat, even when grown in the same field or picked from the same plant ( Hence my love/hate relationship with the Scoville Scale). Many people are unaware that the rating given for a Guinness Book of World Record’s is based on 1 pepper and 1 test. And that they are not required to grow or test the peppers under any sort of scientific standards. The recent research done at the University of New Mexico’s Chile Pepper Institute should be a standard for testing Chile Peppers. Scientific testing should be required to ensure accurate heat levels.
So some of my customers ask, “Aren’t these just hybrids ?”, and you would think that they are. But these peppers are different not only in looks, but genetic testing suggests that although they may have similar family traits. They are in fact genetically different. For a great article and interview done by Scott Roberts with Jim Duffy from Refining Fire Chiles Click Here. Speaking of Jim, I posted a while back about some plants that I bought from him. While at his Lakeside home he talked me into trying a couple of peppers. One of those peppers was the Chocolate 7-pot (#2 in the new ranking). The pepper is dark brown and does have a hint of flavor that some may associate with chocolate, that is until your entire mouth is on fire. I only ate what amounts to 1 centimeter by 1 centimeter piece of the pepper and can safely say I WILL NEVER DO THAT AGAIN! So my advice is proceed with cation! Although these super hots will do wonders for the hot sauce industry by allowing us to move away from capsaicin extract and towards super hot sauces that are laden with actually pepper flavor they are not for everyone.
pepperprincess 