Pepper X: New World’s Hottest Pepper Revealed, Watch ‘Hot Ones’ Host Sean Evans’ Taste Test

Move over Carolina Reaper, there’s a new spicy pepper in town. Packing spice that is three times hotter than the Reaper, the new Pepper X has officially been named the hottest pepper in the world by the Guinness Book of World Records. The pepper was created by breeder and grower Ed Currie, who also created the Reaper.

Pepper X captured the spicy record on Oct. 9 after Currie spent more than a decade attempting to perfect a pepper that provides “immediate, brutal heat.” Currie cultivated Pepper X for a decade on his South Carolina farm, “cross breeding it with some of his hottest peppers to increase its capsaicin content,” Guinness said on its website. Now one of only five people who has eaten an entire Pepper X, Currie said the pepper packed quite the punch.

“I was feeling the heat for three-and-a-half hours. Then the cramps came,” he said, per 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.”

Heat in peppers is measured in Scoville Heat Units, where zero is bland and a regular jalapeno pepper registers about 5,000 units. A habanero, the previous record-holder about 25 years ago, typically tops 100,000. The Reaper, meanwhile, which was crowned the world’s hottest pepper back in 2013, averaged 1,641,183 SHU. Pepper X blows them all away, registering an average of 2,693,000 SHU in lab tests at Winthrop University in South Carolina, making it more than one million units hotter than Currie’s previous innovation. The pepper is even hotter than most pepper sprays police use, which is typically around 1.6 million units. It is also hotter than bear spray, which advertises at 2.2 million units.

The greenish-yellow Pepper X, a crossbreed of a Carolina Reaper and what Currie mysteriously classifies as a “pepper that a friend of mine sent me from Michigan that was brutally hot,” reportedly has an earthy flavor once its heat is delivered. However, fans hoping to try the pepper will only be able to do so through sold hot sauces, as Pepper X pods and seeds will not be released. CNN notes that the pepper was first presented on an episode of the popular YouTube series Hot Ones, with host Sean Evans struggling against the “violent and ever-growing” heat.

Pepper X is not the end for Currie. Currie is attempting to build an empire of hot pepper sauces through his PuckerButt company. According to Guinness, he is already working on his next potential record breaker.