A new champion hot pepper

The bhut jolokia pepper, officially certified as the hottest in the world since 2007, has just been dethroned. Gizmodo reports:

The Habanero pepper has a maximum hotness of 350,000 Scoville Heat Units. That’s nothing—like eating an Altoid—compared to the mouth-searing Trinidad Moruga Scorpion. It tops out at over two million SHU and has just been named the world’s hottest pepper.

… researchers from New Mexico State University’s Chile Pepper Institute … planted 125 plants of the hottest known varieties—the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion, the Trinidad Scorpion, the 7-pot, the Chocolate 7-pot and the previous world record holder, the Bhut Jolokia. Once ripe, several peppers from each type were harvested, dried and ground to a powder. From that powder, the team extracted capsaicinoids (the compounds that give peppers their heat) and rated them. The Trinidad Moruga Scorpion averaged 1.2 million SHU with some individual fruits measuring a face-melting two million-plus SHU.

There’s more at the link. In addition, here’s an interesting article speculating that the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion may be ‘a 7 pot/scorpion hybrid’. The author seems to be well up on the technicalities of chilis, to coin a phrase.

I note that you can already buy seeds for the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion pepper on Amazon.com. The seller claims:

These are [the] same seeds that got the recent 2,000,000 Scoville Record. How do I know? They used my seeds for the research!

He or she doesn’t offer any evidence to confirm that, but if so, their seeds should sell like (very) hot cakes! I won’t be among their customers, though. I start wincing in anticipation when the Scoville unit count reaches even five figures, let alone seven! I’ll stick to a dash of Tabasco or Cholula hot sauce on my food now and again . . .

Peter