We love peppers for their spicy, sweet intrigue and character, for their ability to transform a dish with their signature heat and flavor. Poblanos, jalapenos, serranos, and even firey habaneros give us that bit of kick we need every now and then in our food, that fun little zing that makes our brow sweat a bit when we bite into a truly delicious chicken wing. But there’s a certain personality that loves to push the limit here. A certain streak of what some might call insanity. This person loves to push that line as far as possible, taking peppers from an ingredient that provides a fun little kick to one that all but catches your insides on fire and sends you to the hospital in a screaming ambulance.
If you ask us, food is meant to be an enjoyable experience, not a painful one. But we’re not here to judge. To each their own, we say. Live and let live and all that. So, if you’re in the camp that loves to cross that line of insanity, then the peppers on this list are for you.
The Scoville Scale
The secret ingredient that makes peppers hot is a little chemical called capsaicin. The more capsaicin a pepper has, the spicier it will be. For those wondering how exactly these levels are documented, there is a handy tool called the Scoville Scale that ranks peppers according to their heat and capsaicin levels, as well as their overall pungency.
For reference, a bell pepper contains no capsaicin and, therefore, registers 0 Scoville heat units (SHUs). A jalapeno has around 5,000 SHUs. Pepper spray—the stuff used to stop criminals—clocks in around 5.3 million SHUs. A fair warning: Most of the peppers on this list measure closer to the pepper spray than anything a normal person might willingly consume.
5. 7 Pot Primo
The fifth hottest pepper in the world is called the 7 Pot Primo pepper. This feisty little firecracker looks startlingly similar to another pepper on our list, the Carolina Reaper, with its long, skinny tail, lumpy texture, and often fiery red color.
Created in 2005 by horticulturist Troy Primeaux, the 7 Pot Primo measures 1 – 1 1/2 inches long, can be red, orange, or yellow, and registers 1.5 million Scoville heat units.
If you’re brave enough to try the 7 Pot Primo, its taste is said to be fruity and floral, with hints of earthiness and nuttiness. But if you ask us, nutty is what you’d have to be to eat this pepper.
4. 7 Pot Douglah
The 7 Pot Douglah is well known in the pepper community as one of the hottest peppers on the Scoville Scale with the best flavor. For those who dare, this pepper can be consumed fresh, dried, or powdered and is said to also be nutty and fruity in flavor.
This hottie registers between 923,889 and 1,853,986 SHU and is uniquely brown in color compared to other super hot peppers in the category. About two inches long, the 7 Pot Douglah is similar in shape to a small habanero and is said to have a heat that lingers in both the mouth and the stomach, so proceed with caution.
3. Trinidad Moruga Scorpion
The placenta of the pepper – the white center found inside when a pepper is cut – is where most of a pepper’s capsaicin oils are held. When cutting into the third pepper on our list, the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion, the inside is almost entirely placenta, which explains the high heat content of this particular pepper.
Named after its village of origin, Moruga, Trinidad, the Scorpion can register up to a scorching 2,009,231 SHU. That’s enough capsaicin to eat through latex gloves. We’d prefer not to think about what it might do to our organs.
2. Carolina Reaper
Only recently dethroned as the hottest pepper in the world, the Carolina Reaper still maintains a prestigious spot on our list. Now the second hottest pepper in the world, the Reaper withheld the grand title for a respectable ten years (2013 – 2023) with a peak SHU of 2.2 million. That is 200 times hotter than a jalapeno if your tastebuds can comprehend that.
Created by pepper breeder Ed Currie, this intense pepper gets its signature heat from its parents – the Ghost Pepper and the Red Habanero.
Mean-looking with its hellish red color and pointy stinger, the Carolina Reaper is said to have a surprisingly pleasant fruity flavor…before it melts your tongue into a pool of liquid magma.
1. Pepper X
Officially recognized in October 2023 by Guinness World Records as the hottest pepper ever independently tested, Pepper X peaks at over 3 million Scoville units. As it has not yet been publically released, there is still much to be discovered about this hot and mysterious pepper.
What we do know is that Pepper X was also created by Ed Currie, the creator of the Carolina Reaper and that he is one of the very few people on earth at this point to have tasted Pepper X raw. According to reports, the taste test results in an intense burning sensation followed by several hours of intestinal cramping. Sounds delicious.
