Hottest Chillies In The World That Are Insanely Spicy

Do you love chillies? Do you feel your everyday green chillies and red chillies don’t have enough PUNCH for you? Well, don’t worry! Here we have a list of hottest chillies in the world to add that extra punch! And by hot chillies we meant, weeping-on-the-floor, burn-your-tongue-HOT. 

How do we examine the hotness of the pepper? Well, with the help of the Scoville Scale. The Scoville Test is a way of quantifying how hot a pepper is by measuring the concentration of capsaicinoids. Capsaicin is the chemical compound responsible for the spicy sensation within a pepper. The SHU ranges from zero up to the millions, each one representing how many cups of sugar water it would take to dilute a cup of the spice (or pepper) to a neutral spiciness level. 

Hottest Chillies In The World In No Particular Order

So if you are seeking extreme heat, here’s our compiled list of the hottest chillies in the world:

Carolina Reaper

Even when I tried to make this list in no order whatsoever, I didn’t think anyone else deserved to be on top other than CAROLINA REAPER. A cross between Sweet Habanero and Naga Viper chillies, the Reaper was named as the hottest pepper by Guinness World Records in the year 2013. Created in South Carolina by Ed Currie (when he was a Pakistani Naga with a Red Habanero type from St Vincent’s Island), it rates at an average of 1,641,183 Scoville Heat Units (SHU). Nothing can get hotter than the Carolina reaper!

7 Pot Douglah

Another Trinidadian pepper, 7 Pot Douglah, has notably dark chocolate brown pimpled skin and comes agonizingly close to two million SHU ( average of 1,853,936 SHU) on the Scoville scale. The pepper’s texture starts off green but matures into rich brown or even purple. Aside from its color, Douglah is roughly habanero shaped, about two inches long and is one of the most deliciously flavored peppers. This rare and amazingly hot pepper from the Caribbean is definitely one of the world’s hottest peppers.

Trinidad Scorpion Butch T

This tiny, red, and sinister pepper is the pride and joy of Butch Taylor, owner of Zydeco Hot Sauce in Mississippi. It was propagated by him and grown by Neil Smith of the Hippy Seed Company and Marcel de Wit of the Chilli Factory. Named aptly due to the scorpion stinger found at the tip of the pepper, there have been 1,463,700 Scoville Heat Units (SHU). If you ever plan to use this scorpion pepper for cooking, wear safety gear- masks, gloves, as cooks have claimed numbness in their hands for up to two days afterwards. Ohhhh…doesn’t that sound like one of the world’s hottest chili peppers? 

7 Pot Primo

A cross between Naga Morich and Trinidad 7 Pot pepper, 7 Pot Primo was created by Troy Primeaux, (nickname Primo), a horticulturist from Louisiana in 2005. This hot pepper has a very fruity/floral flavor that’s intense but yet enjoyable. It measures in at 1,473,480 Scoville Heat Units on the Scoville Scale. 7 Pot Primo’s skin is typically bumpy and pimply compared to other red hot chili peppers in the world, though the tail is most characteristic- scorpion-like. This unique and interesting pepper is a favorite among chili lovers and pepper growers alike.

Also Read: 10 Of The Spiciest Dishes And Where to Find Them

Naga Viper

Created by Gerald Fowler, who runs the Chili Pepper Company in Cumbria, England, The Naga Viper is a hybrid of three different chilli peppers –Bhut Jolokia, Naga Morich, and Trinidad Scorpion. This unstable three-way genetic hybrid has a Scoville Heat Unit of 1,349,000. In Sanskrit ‘Naga’ means cobra snake and in English, a viper is a family of venomous snakes. So the name itself is a first warning. In the first ten seconds you might underestimate the power of these hot chillies but after half a minute of consumption the killer burn arrives. Within a minute you will be bursting with sweetness and wreathing on the floor.

Trinidad Moruga Scorpion

Native to the lands of Moruga in Trinidad and Tobago, this hot pepper was the first pepper ever to break 2 million scovilles (2,009,231) and was the hottest chilli pepper in the world in 2012. Clocking in at 2,009,231 Scoville Units, this pepper is the spiciest peppers naturally occurring pepper known to man. Each fruit of this chilli pepper is about the size of a golf ball and even adding a small amount to any dish can be beyond blistering. It is so hot that it can wreck your stomach and burn your intestines.

Infinity Chili

The wrinkled skin Infinity chili is an extremely hot variety of chili pepper that comes under the Capsicum chinense species. This pepper was engineered in England by Nick Woods, but only held the world record for two weeks in 2011 before getting ousted by another contender, the Naga Viper. It measures 1,067,286 – 1,250.000 SHU which makes it difficult for a person to eat even one. People who have tried eating complained of unbearable pain and long burning sensation. It’s believed that even one of these red hot chili peppers could probably spice a meal for an entire army. 

Bhut Jolokia

Bhut Jolokia (better known as the Ghost Pepper) is an interspecies hybrid chilli pepper responsible for some of the most brain-searing, tongue-sizzling curries and chutneys in the entire world. It is cultivated in the Northeast Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Nagaland and Manipur. Bhut Jolokia was awarded the title of World’s Hottest of All Spices by the Guinness World Records in 2007, though was eventually toppled several times over. On the Scoville scale, these fiery yellow chillies rate a whopping 1,041,427 SHU.

Also Read: Rayalaseema Food: Best Dishes To Try From This Spicy Cuisine

Chillies and peppers derive a significant part of their hot pungency due to years of cross-pollination and hybridization. Therefore, it is not advisable for people to consume these hottest chillies in the world without expert supervision. Did we cover all your favorite types of peppers? If not, do let us know in the comments below!