Scoville Heat Units: 2,009,231 SHUCapsicum Chinense In February 2012, the 2012 New Mexico Chile Conference, in association with Jim Duffy of Refining Fire Chiles, announced that the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion was the world’s hottest chili pepper. Clocking in at 2,009,231 Scoville Units, this chili pepper is beyond blistering. The Moruga Scorpion is indigenous to the Moruga region of Trinidad and Tobago. Compare that to a typical jalapeno pepper, which averages about 5,000 Scoville Heat Units, and the hottest Trinidad Moruga Scorpion pepper is more than 400 times hotter. Belonging to the collection of “superhots”, the Moruga Chili Pepper has extreme heat and is used in a number of hot sauce products. Once the plants were grown and the peppers matured, the researchers chose a number of fruits from the plants. They dried them and ground them to powder. They were then tested for their levels of Capsaicinoids. The capsaicin of these blistering peppers actually wore through multiple pairs of latex gloves that the researchers wore while picking the peppers. They went through about 4 pairs each. Although few are willing to actually eat a whole chili, (and it’s not recommended), the Moruga Scorpion offers great flavor that, if used in smaller amounts, makes for deliciously addictive barbeque sauce or hot sauce. Because the heat levels of all peppers can vary greatly, many also say that the growing conditions in New Mexico where the study was conducted are perfect for producing scorching peppers, and that it would be difficult to replicate that pepper heat in most other growing conditions. Therefore, people growing them at home probably wouldn’t get peppers on the high end of the Scoville rating, but would they really notice? It’s still going to be scorching and it should have the same flavor, so it could still be worth it to grow them at home. The previous record holder was the Trinidad Scorpion Butch T chili pepper. The Trinidad Moruga Scorpion was the world record holder until it was defeated by the Carolina Reaper. Currently, the Carolina Reaper is the Hottest Chili Pepper in the World.
