Can you handle pepper x, allegedly the hottest pepper in the world?

October 1, 2017 9:17 AM

How does one quantify the heat in the hottest pepper in the world?

Think the above quote comes from a dentist (sorry, we know you're just trying to help) or a dominatrix? Nope! It comes from none other than Smokin’ Ed Currie, the man who’s just made Pepper X, allegedly the hottest pepper known to man.

And if this guy says it's the hottest, we're going to have to trust him — Currie’s hot sauce company, PuckerButt Pepper Co., was also responsible for the former world’s hottest pepper, the Carolina Reaper. It's safe to say Currie enjoys making people sweat.

How does one quantify the heat in the hottest pepper in the world? Scoville heat units measure the quantity of the spice-inducing chemical capsaicin. Jalapeño peppers, for reference, max out at 20,000 Scovilles. The Carolina Reaper topped out at 2.2 million Scoville heat units. Pepper X, the H-bomb of condiments? It reaches a frightening 3.18 million Scovilles. Call your tongue and tell it your taste buds aren’t coming home tonight.

As Currie told First We Feast host Sean Evans, Pepper X has been in development for a decade—five times as long as it took to engineer the atomic bomb—and Currie had it tested at three universities before announcing the Scoville figure.

If you want to try it, you're going to have to check out Currie's latest sauce — The Last Dab. The diabolical genius says he opted for natural spices rather than extracts when creating it —the mash, 93 percent Pepper X and 7 percent vinegar, is combined with ginger, turmeric, coriander, cumin, and mustard—because he wants people to taste the layers of ingredients, not just the overwhelming heat.

One Direction member Liam Payne was, however, overwhelmed by the heat. When the pop star went on Sean Evans’ Hot Ones to sample a wing covered in The Last Dab, he was initially unimpressed, saying “I don’t feel like I got it...you can tell Smokey Joe or whatever his name is that his pepper isn’t all that hot.” Then, like a man who just realized he left his tab open after leaving the bar, he realizes he messed up big time.

Can a sauce be so hot it sends you to the hospital? Yes, actually. In 2013, a Chicago-area high school student pranked lunch workers by “spiking the school cafeteria’s spaghetti marinara with hot sauce.” According to ABC News, three staffers were hospitalized with coughing wheezing, shortness of breath and skin rashes.

You can buy The Last Dab at Heatonist.com, although supplies are on backorder due to the popularity of the nefarious nectar.