Link Trinidad Moruga Scorpion judged to have worst sting among chiles ALBUQUERQUE -- There are superhot chile varieties. And then there's the sweat-inducing, tear-generating, mouth-on-fire Trinidad Moruga Scorpion. With a name like that, it's not surprising that months of research by the experts at New Mexico State University's Chile Pepper Institute have identified the variety as the new hottest pepper on the planet. The pepper scored the highest among a handful of chile breeds reputed to be among the hottest in the world. Its mean heat topped 1.2 million Scoville units. By comparison, a jalapeño maxes out at 8,000 units. "You take a bite. It doesn't seem so bad, and then it builds and it builds and it builds. So it is quite nasty," said Paul Bosland, a renowned pepper expert and director of the chile institute. Researchers were pressed by hot-sauce makers, seed producers and others to establish the average heat levels for superhot varieties to quash unscientific claims. That's something that hadn't been done before, Bosland said. "The question was, could the Chile Pepper Institute establish the benchmark for chile heat?" he said. "Chile heat is a complex thing, and the industry doesn't like to base it on just a single fruit that's a record holder. It's too variable." The team planted about 125 of each variety -- the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion, the Trinidad Scorpion, the 7-pot, the Chocolate 7-pot and the Bhut Jolokia, or ghost pepper, which is native to India and was a previous record-holder certified by Guinness World Records in 2007
I've always wondered what evolutionary purpose incredibly hot peppers/chiles served, or why they came into being. Like, is the heat just a natural defense mechanism to discourage things from eating its fruit so that the seeds can fall to the ground and spread naturally?
I'm going to do the same. I'm pretty big into spicy food. I honestly don't know how I built up a tolerance this crazy, but my grandmother grows Bhut Ju loka peppers and makes her own salsa and it's pretty amazing. Hot as hell that's for sure but with some food and some beer, it's delicious. Any of you guys go to the Houston Hot Sauce festival? I went this year. Great varieties of hot sauces.
So even at that level of Hot to someone who's accustomed to eating peppers you can still have taste? Serious question.
<a target='_blank' title='ImageShack - Image And Video Hosting' href='http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/850/krang.gif/'><img src='http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/5332/krang.gif' border='0'/></a>
I know you weren't quoting me, but as someone who eats extremely spicy I'll go ahead and answer, you can't really taste it if you straight up bite into the pepper (With the super hot ones of course) . However, if you make a salsa out of the peppers, you can enjoy a hell of a kick, and still enjoy your food.
Most people use the peppers to actually spice up food, not wake up and brush their teeth with it. :grin: I put habaneros, ghost peppers/hot sauce, etc. into anything I make. For example, about 3-4 habaneros per pound of ground beef gives it a bit of a kick. I'm not one of these people that sit around trying to eat 10 habaneros to prove something to no one. I've tried growing bhut jolokias, but I didn't get them to produce until around October, which sucked. Worse, they weren't overly hot, which sucked even more. This year it'll be Morugas, Butch T's, some peppers my parents grow (no idea what they are), and Early Jalapenos.
Making various salsas and sauces is a cooking hobby of mine. I found long ago that if you use only Jalapeno's to control the heat, you have to use too many such that they also dominate the flavor. With habaneros, you can use less Jalapenos (for the roasted flavor) and do all your heat control with habaneros. Much more consistent, and the flavor of the habanero is tremendous. Plus, you can do jalapeno-less salsas, and do only habaneros -- which is great for fruit salsas like mango salsas. so, the tremendous heat lets you use less and adds not only the kick but a nice flavor.
