As of 2018, what is the hottest pepper?

In November 2013, the Guinness Book of World Records crowned the Carolina Reaper as the new reigning champ of super-hot peppers, knocking the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion down to second place in the ranks. Since then, no pepper has taken its place as the hottest on the planet.

The title for the hottest pepper is something that’s challenged more often than you may expect. Every year, hot pepper cultivators find a new mix of hybrid, soil, and temperature to create peppers that will combat for the top position, if not beat it. The competition is fierce. Currently there are a few claims that there are hotter peppers being harvested, however these have been tested falsely by those growing the plants, and not by an impartial lab.

Carolina Reaper’s range from 1,400,000 Scoville heat units (SHU) to a blistering 2,200,000. That top end is just as hot as or hotter than standard pepper spray. In comparison, the more familiar jalapeño is just 2500 to 8000 SHU. Even the hottest jalapeño will come in at around 175 times weaker than the mildest Carolina Reaper. It tips the scales at about 200,000 SHU on average above the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion. To give that reference, 200,000 SHU is the heat of an average habanero pepper, so it’s a significant bump up to what was already crazy hot.